The great Royal Woods inquiry
by Talespinner69
Summary: (Sequel to 'What she ended up learning') An old journal that fifteen-year-old Dawn Sharp, the daughter of Luna and Sam, bought at an estate sale ends up breathing new life into an old case, blowing the lid off of a murder that occurred before Dawn herself was born. Because of this, one of the biggest cases in Royal Woods history rocks the courthouse.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

The great Royal Woods inquiry

Chapter one: A legend of the arcade

Gus' Games and Grub, a pizzeria and arcade, was a rather popular place back when the Loud children were still growing up. Even now, twenty-one years after sole Loud boy Lincoln was eleven years of age, Gus' was still a rather popular place for the local youth of Royal Woods to go to regularly. Then again, in this current time, Gus' is a 'vintage' pizzeria and arcade, and that 'vintage' factor held quite a bit of appeal to the children and teens of Royal Woods.

Gus' also held quite a bit of allure for some of the adults or Royal Woods as well; these adults mostly consisted of people who used to be kids and teens that spent time at Gus' back in their youth, and to see that the old pizzeria and arcade was still standing, was still in business, after all this time, brought fond memories and feelings of nostalgia to the minds of those aforementioned adults. As such, adults who grew up with Gus' often chose to eat there for lunch or dinner.

One such adult is Chandler.

Dressed in a formal yet casual outfit consisting of a greenish casual dress shirt, with its sleeves rolled up and front open to reveal a t-shirt of a slightly darker greenish color underneath, a pair of black casual dress pants, and a pair of white shoes, Chandler strolled into the old pizzeria and arcade. Chandler was also accompanied by three men in his age group; these three men were Chandler's friends Frank, Trent and Richie.

Frank was a well-fed, fair-skinned blonde fellow that had his hair in something of a style reminiscent of a certain American fighting game character. Frank was dressed similarly to Chandler, except that his casual dress shirt was naturally short-sleeved so he didn't have to roll the sleeves, his shirt underneath was yellow, his casual dress pants were brown and he wore sandals as opposed to shoes.

Trent was a fair-skinned, bespectacled fellow with a slim yet healthy build and brown hair in a somewhat short length, not all that different from how he wore it back in his youth. He wore a purple casual dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a dark bluish shirt with purple stripes under that, dark gray pants and a pair of dark gray sneakers; Trent's current ensemble had a noticeable amount of differences from what he wore in his youth.

The same could not be said of how Richie, the last of Chandler's three friends, was dressed, as he wore more or less the same outfit he did in his youth, just sized to fit his now adult self; he wore a blue hoodie, brown cargo shorts, white socks and bluish shoes. The only noticeable differences in Richie's outfit were that his current hoodie could open in the front, the hoodie was completely open and exposed a reddish-brown shirt that was worn underneath, and that Richie's bluish shoes were actually shoes as opposed to cleats. Aside from that, Richie still looked pretty similar to how he always looked; he had tan skin and black hair worn in a sideways style.

"I still can't believe that this old place is still up and running," Frank remarked in something of a marveling tone as he looked around as he and the others entered the pizzeria and arcade, "Heh. The memories just keep popping up, huh?"

"I figured that this would be as great of a place as any for us to grab lunch, Frank," Chandler remarked casually, "After all, Gus' is where you, me, Sid, Trent and Richie first met up with each other back when we were all third graders in elementary school."

"It still bites that Sid lost his battle with colon cancer yesterday evening," Richie remarked, a clear hint of somberness in his tone.

"And that's part of why we're here, gentlemen," Chandler replied as he and the men walked up to a podium, got a table, and were led to their table by the late teens girl working the podium. The four men were seated at a curved table, with Trent and Frank on the outer seats and Richie and Chandler in the inner seats.

After the four men all sat down, Chandler pulled out a small framed photo of a fair-skinned man who had something of a unibrow and wore a red hoodie that, similar to Richie's could open in the front, but was zipped up at the time the photo was taken; the photo only showed the man's upper half, so nothing else could be seen. The man in the photo was also slim, yet there were clear signs that the man in the photo was not in the best of health at the time that the photo had been taken. The upper corners of the frame the photo was in were decorated with simple red ribbons, not unlike what one would see adorn pictures of people at funerals who were being laid to rest. Chandler sat this framed photo on the table so that it was between him and Richie; the framed photo was as close to the wall that the table was along as possible.

Pointing to the framed photo that Chandler pulled out and sat on the table, Frank said, "That was taken after Sid's first round of chemo, wasn't it?"

"It's the most recent photo of Sid that I have," Chandler explained, "The next most recent photo after this is one of when we were all still in middle school."

"Fair enough," Frank replied right as one of the people working at Gus' came up to the table the four men all sat at; it was clear from the uniform that was worn that the employee, a man who is somewhat older than Chandler and any of his friends, was in a much higher position than the late teens girl who had shown the men to their table.

"Ah, Chandler," the man said, "It's always great to see such a high-standing member of Royal Woods society come into my establishment to eat."

"My friends and I are feeling nostalgic," Chandler replied to the man, clearly in charge of running the place, "And we're trying to honor our friend who died yesterday evening due to his colon cancer." With a shrug, Chandler continued, "I figured that we should have lunch at the place where the five of us all became friends in the first place."

"A very good idea if I ever heard one," the man replied, "And I'm sorry to hear that your friend lost his battle with cancer." As the man continued to talk to Chandler and his friends, a late teen's boy, of a ranking similar to the late teen's girl from before, came walking up.

"Sir," the young adult male began as he got the higher ranked man's attention, "Did you say that this man here is named Chandler?"

"Yes, Brandon," the man replied, "What of it?"

"Well, it's just that for the longest time, a fair number of the high scores in the arcade section were held by someone named Chandler," the young adult male, apparently named Brandon, explained. Gesturing to Chandler, Brandon continued, "I overheard you talking with these men, and when I heard you refer to one of them as Chandler, I remembered the bit about the high scores in the arcade section." With a shrug, Brandon said, "I just wanted to see if this man was the same Chandler."

"Yeah, young man," Chandler said to the Gus' employee, "I'm that same Chandler." With a chuckle, Chandler continued, "I can't believe that after all this time, my high scores from twenty-one years ago are still standing."

"_Were_ standing, sir," Brandon clarified, "They _were_ standing." Jerking a thumb in the direction of the arcade section of Gus', Brandon explained, "According to my co-worker Jacob, all of the standing high scores for all of the games in the arcade section were beaten yesterday afternoon. What's more is that all of them were beaten by just one person, beating one game at a time."

The look of surprise on everyone's faces made it clear that Brandon's statement was not expected. "You mean to tell me that a single person beat all of the standing high scores on all of the games in our arcade?" the higher-ranked man asked.

Nodding once in the affirmative, Brandon said, "That's right, Mr. Stoneson. If you or any of the men at the table don't believe me, you can go see for yourself."

Chandler sat there for a few moments, contemplating a few things. After that, he said, "Hey Trent, let's go check out the arcade." Nodding once in understanding, Trent got up, allowing Chandler to get up, before the both of them went into the arcade. When they did, they checked the closest game to them when they entered the arcade, a game that Chandler held a high score on. When Chandler and Trent checked the high scores, they saw that Chandler's score was only in second place; above it was the first place high score, held by someone who entered their name as Sinborn.

"Sinborn?" Chandler said in a confused tone as he saw the name at the top of the scoreboard, "Who the heck is Sinborn?"

"It's probably just some teen who thought that the name sounded really edgy or whatever," Trent remarked. Turning his attention back to the game's scoreboard, Trent continued, "Still, it's pretty amazing that this kid managed to beat your high score at this game, which had stood for over twenty years." After they checked that game, Chandler and Trent proceeded to check all of the other games in the arcade. Regardless of which one they checked, Chandler and Trent always got the same result; the leading high score on the scoreboard was held by someone who was calling themselves Sinborn.

Chandler and Trent, after they had finished checking all the games, returned to their table, where Frank and Richie were waiting; as the two men who got up sat back down at the table, Frank informed them that he and Richie already ordered food for the four of them, as well as large glasses of soda. "That Brandon kid was right," Chandler remarked, "All of the high scores for all of the games in the arcade were beaten by some kid calling themselves Sinborn."

"That's actually pretty impressive," Richie remarked, "Granted, it sucks that your high scores, which had stood for over two decades, were all beaten, but it's still pretty impressive that one lone person was able to beat all of the high scores for all of the games in the arcade."

Letting out a breath, Chandler said, "Yeah, I'll agree with that. But still…" Leaning back in his seat slightly, Chandler let out a sigh before he added as he looked up somewhat at the ceiling, "…I just can't help but wonder. Who is this Sinborn person?"

* * *

After a successful trip to the local manga and anime store that is one of many stores in her Uncle Bobby's respectable empire of businesses, fifteen-year-old Dawn Sharp walked through the front door of the house where she lived with her Uncle Bobby, Aunt Lori, and younger cousins, the twins Lincoln and Ronnie Anne. When she entered the home, Dawn heard her Aunt Lori call out from the kitchen/dining room area, "Are you two kids back from Ronnie Anne's soccer game today already?"

"No, Aunt Lori," Dawn called back as she walked towards where her aunt was, "It's me." Upon entering the kitchen/dining area, Dawn saw that her Aunt Lori was entertaining a guest, that being Lily, another one of Dawn's aunts and the youngest sibling of Lori. The two women, both Louds by birth (with Lily still being a Loud, as Lori took Bobby's family name upon marriage), were sitting at the table, conversing with each other.

The two women looked the same as always, as did Dawn; the fifteen-year-old girl was fair-skinned and had a slim yet healthy build, her brown hair was long (and in the same style as _Mizore Shirayuki_'_s _hair prior to the haircut), there were some freckles on her face, and Dawn wore a baggy long-sleeved sweatshirt (cream-colored body with light lavender sleeves) whose neck hole slightly exposed the top of her shoulders, a pair of gray baggy studded cargo shorts, a pair of slightly baggy socks, and a pair of brown shoes.

"Oh, Aunt Lily," Dawn said in a mildly surprised tone as she proceeded to take her backpack off, "I didn't know you'd be here." As she sat her backpack on the floor along one of the walls, the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl continued, "What brings you by?"

"Not much, if I'm being honest," Lily replied, "Carlitos is busy helping Bobby get something ready at one of the businesses that Bobby owns, and it's pretty boring without him around, and I also figured that it was about high time that I see how some of my siblings were doing."

Dawn knew what her aunt was talking about; Lily was currently dating Carlitos Casagrande, the youngest cousin of Lori's husband Bobby. If Lori being married to Bobby, as well as Dawn's Uncle Lincoln being married to Aunt Ronnie Anne, weren't enough to solidify the bond between the families of Loud and Santiago-Casagrande, then Lily going out with Carlitos just added more fuel to the fire. But that's beside the point.

"So I take it that Ronnie Anne's team had a soccer game today?" Dawn asked her Aunt Lori as she sat down at the table with both aunts.

"Yeah, your younger cousin has a game today," Lori replied, "Here's hoping that her team manages to pull out a-" Lori was cut off midsentence when a phone's vibration went off, loud enough to be heard. Realizing it was her phone, Lori picked it up to answer the call. "…Hello?" Lori began, "…Oh, Coach Ryan, what's up?" As Dawn and Lily watched, they saw Lori's expression morph into one of mild disappointment. "…She did _what_?" Lori asked, "…Well I can see why that would motivate her into doing so, but it's still no excuse. Was what the kid from the opposing team did an accident? …It was on purpose? Well, I'll be having a talk with the parents of that girl when I get there! I'll see you shortly."

After ending the call and slipping her phone back into her pocket, Lori said to Dawn and Lily, "Apparently, one of the kids from the team opposing Ronnie Anne's was upset about losing, so when she saw Ronnie Anne talking to her brother, she decided to hit him, while Ronnie Anne was standing there. As such, Ronnie Anne decided to fight the girl right there and then."

"Huh, just like our sister-in-law Ronnie Anne, huh?" Lily remarked more than asked, sounding fairly amused by the whole thing, "I take it that you have to go to where the soccer game was being held to do some damage control, as well as apologize to the girl's parents because Ronnie Anne hit their daughter?"

"Well both girls were hitting each other, and the girl Ronnie Anne fought did hit Lincoln," Lori pointed out, "So I'll be expecting an apology from the parents of the girl as well." To her younger sister, Lori asked, "Can I count on you to keep an eye on the place while I go and pick up my kids?"

Giving her older sister a salute that was made more out of playfulness than anything else, Lily replied, "Aye-aye, captain."

Nodding once in thanks, Lori said, "Okay, I'll be back soon." Turning to face her niece, Lori said, "Dawn, can you come with me? I'll be needing you to keep an eye on your younger cousins for me while I talk things over with the parents of that girl who got into an altercation with Ronnie Anne." Dawn nodded once in the affirmative as she proceeded to follow her aunt out the front door.

* * *

A short while later, Lori's car pulled back into the driveway of Bobby and Lori's house, and after it parked and was shut off, Lori, her two children and her niece all got out. "Well what did you expect me to do after I saw that girl hit Lincoln?" Ronnie Anne asked as she looked up at her mother, "Just stand there and do nothing?"

"Regardless of the reason, there was still no excuse to get into a fight," Lori said in a firm tone, "You're lucky the other girl was more at fault than you were."

"Yeah, Ronnie Anne," Dawn remarked, "Aunt Lori's got a point. You really need to learn to reel it in sometimes." When Lori opened the front door, Dawn continued as she and everyone else walked in, "I'm beginning to think that-"

"Ah, about time you returned!" an adult woman's voice said, cutting Dawn off midsentence. Before anyone could react, an adult woman walked up to Lori, threw her arms around the Santiago woman in a way that pinned Lori's arms to her side, and drew Lori into a hug. This mystery woman was an inch or so taller than Lori; she was fair-skinned and had long yellow-blonde hair bound in two pigtails that she allowed to fall down her back. The woman wore a dark green somewhat baggy t-shirt, a pair of somewhat baggy jeans held up with a belt, white sneakers that looked somewhat clunky, and around the woman's waist was a dark brown leather jacket; its neck hole was around the woman's waist so that her lower body was actually on the inside of the jacket.

"I was beginning to think that you were going to be kept late by your business, Lori," the mystery woman remarked, "But I see that you were able to take care of it!"

"Oh, Allison," Lori remarked as she was released from the hug. Dusting herself off somewhat, Lori continued, "What brings you by?"

"We are sisters, you and I," the woman, identified as Allison, replied, "Members of the same clan. What other reason do I need to check in on my fellow kin?"

"Oh yeah, now I remember," Lincoln remarked as he pointed to Allison, "You're Uncle Aggro's older twin sister."

Turning her attention to the young Santiago boy, Allison said, "Indeed I am, little one. My twin brother Aggro is champion to your mother Lori's younger sister Leni. It was a glorious day indeed when the houses of Loud and Ace became united!"

"I think Lincoln and I saw you once last year," Ronnie Anne said as she looked up at her warrior-like aunt, "We came to your house on Halloween for trick-or-treating, and you gave us some fancy Swedish chocolates."

"Indeed that was me, little one," Allison replied, a bit of an amused laugh in her tone. Turning her attention to Lori, Allison continued, "Anyway Lori, there is something of note that I wish to discuss with you and the sister that I found when the boys and I came here."

"Oh yeah, Aunt Lily was visiting," Lincoln remarked, "Speaking of, where is she? Also, who are the boys that you're talking about, Aunt Allison?"

"Over here," Lily called out, making everyone turn to see Lily sitting on the middle seat of the sofa, practically sandwiched between two large-and I do mean large-dogs; these dogs sat upright on the sofa on either side of the youngest adult Loud sibling, the looks on their faces showing that they liked having Lily's company, even though they were unknowingly keeping Lily pinned. Both dogs had mostly black fur, save for the bottom of their muzzles, their necks and bellies, which were a light brownish color.

Pointing to where Lily sat, Allison said, "Those there are the boys, Skoll and Hati. Worry not about them, they are both sweethearts except to those who threaten kin and clan."

"Whoa, those dogs are big!" Ronnie Anne practically exclaimed as she and Lincoln walked up to them to pet them. The two dogs leaned forward to the Santiago twins as the got close, and gently licked their faces as Ronnie Anne and Lincoln petted them. "What kind of dogs are they, Aunt Allison?" Ronnie Anne asked.

"Skoll and Hati are both Tibetan Mastiffs," Allison explained, "And ones bred from the same line as Fenrir, another Tibetan Mastiff that I had long ago."

"Where is Fenrir?" Ronnie Anne asked as she turned to face Allison.

"Ronnie Anne," Lori began to explain to her daughter, "Your Aunt Allison's dog Fenrir died some time ago due to old age. Tibetan Mastiffs only live an average of twelve to fifteen years, and Fenrir was a young adult dog over twenty years ago."

"…Oh," Ronnie Anne replied, sounding mildly sad, "That's really sad." Turning to Allison, the female Santiago twin continued, "Sorry about that, Aunt Allison."

"Fenrir lived long and well, little one," Allison remarked, "So do not be sad. Besides, I've little doubt that the Valkyries escorted Fenrir across the rainbow bridge into Valhalla when his time was called." Gesturing to her dogs on the sofa, Allison added, "Besides which, Skoll and Hati are of Fenrir's line. They carry on Fenrir's legacy, these two."

"Can you call them off, please?" Lily asked as one of the dogs laid over across her lap.

Allison clapped twice, and both dogs instantly got up and hopped off of the sofa, walking over to stand at their owner's side. "I suppose that mighty beasts such as Skoll and Hati might be too much for some to handle all at once," Allison remarked, "My apologies if they both smothered you too much." Lily said that it wasn't much trouble, and that she was glad that the dogs weren't practically keeping her pinned to the sofa anymore, as she had to get up and go use the bathroom really badly.

* * *

A few moments later, Dawn was playing a video game on a console in the living room while her younger cousins watched; Skoll and Hati hung near the Santiago twins, as the two children were gladly giving the two Tibetan Mastiffs attention. As the three humans and two dogs hung out in the living room, Lori and Lily sat at the table in the kitchen/dining room area with Allison, who had pulled out two bottles of mead from a bag she brought with her.

"I've never actually had mead before," Lily remarked as Allison poured glasses of the drink for herself and the two women who were Louds by blood, "Is it good?"

"Mead is a true warrior's drink, Lily," Allison said, "No finer drink out there if you ask me!" After the mead was poured, the three women each took a glass. "Anyway, sisters," Allison began, "There is something rather important of note that I figured that the two of you might be interested in."

"What's that, Allison?" Lori asked after taking a sip of her mead.

"You know of Chandler, don't you?" Allison asked, "You know, the boorish troll who married my younger sister Astrid?"

"Oh yeah, him," Lori replied, her tone sounding not all that amused upon hearing Chandler having been mentioned by name, "What about him?"

"A friend of Chandler's," Allison began to explain, "A fellow by the name of Sid, recently died. From what Astrid told me on the matter when she called me and my husband Sigurd, this Sid fellow lost his battle with some form of cancer; I forget which kind of cancer Astrid said it was." Taking a pause so she could swallow a mouthful of mead, Allison continued, "Anyway, there is going to be a sale that will liquidate the belongings of this Sid fellow. I figured that you and the rest of house Loud may be interested in checking things out, Lori."

"Oh, an estate sale?" Lori remarked, "Huh. It's been a while since I've been to one." Taking another sip of her mead before continuing, Lori asked, "When is the sale?"

"The first day of the sale is this Friday, but it will go on over the weekend as well," Allison explained, "The sister of this Sid fellow, along with the sister's two teenage sons, will be running the sale, as Sigurd and I were told by Astrid."

"Sounds interesting," Lori replied, "I've got nothing going on, so I think I'll swing by the sale to see if there's anything I want to buy."

Nodding twice in agreement, Allison said, "Aye, and I'll be at the sale as well, looking for treasures to buy for myself." Turning her attention to the direction the living room was in, Allison continued, "Lori, I know you told me that you had two kids, those twins that you spoke of, yet I counted three walking in with you."

"Oh, the teenager is my niece Dawn," Lori explained, "She's Luna and Sam's daughter. Bobby and I have been looking after Dawn because of how Luna and Sam are on the road practically all the time. Didn't I tell you about Dawn as well?"

"Ah, now I remember," Allison remarked, her tone carrying a hint of remembrance, "You did mention once or twice that you and your champion are raising the musician's daughter for her." With a look of mild consideration on her face, Allison added, "Although you never mentioned to me that the musician's daughter is a Sinborn."

A confused look, mixed with a mild hint of worry, appearing on her face, Lori said, "What are you talking about, Allison?"

"The musician's daughter is a Sinborn," Allison went on, "I can tell just by looking at her." Giving her sister-in-law a mildly curious look, Allison asked, "Did you not know about this?"

"What's a Sinborn?" Lily asked, her expression clearly showing that she had absolutely no idea what Allison was talking about.

"It's nothing to worry about, Lily," Lori said, saying it almost right away. Turning to Allison, Lori remarked with a hint of firmness, "And I don't have any idea what you're talking about, Allison. Dawn is not a 'Sinborn' or whatever it is you're calling her. Whatever you see that's making you say that must be a trick of the light or whatever."

"There be no trick of the light, Lori," Allison replied, a hint of confusion mixed with a milder hint of suspicion in her tone, "But I'll take your word for it." Lori nodded once in thanks before turning to Lily and asking her to go out into the living room to hang with the kids and dogs, as she wanted to talk to Allison alone about something. Lily respected Lori's request, but not before quickly finishing her glass of mead.

* * *

A few minutes later, Lori and Allison finished their private talk and walked out into the living room; Dawn was still playing on her game console, the twins were still watching her, and Lily was back to being sandwiched between Skoll and Hati on the sofa; the two Tibetan Mastiffs seemed rather fond of Lily for some odd reason and were keen on keeping her company. Turning to regard the two older women, Lily said with a hint of annoyance in her tone, "This is why I wanted to finish my drink before I came back out here."

"Hmm, indeed," Allison remarked to the youngest Loud who is an adult. The female Ace woman turned her attention to Dawn briefly, with Dawn just noticing that her warrior of an aunt had paid her some attention. Turning to regard Lori, Allison said, "You were right after all, Lori. It was just a trick of the light. My apologies for jumping to conclusions about your niece based on her appearance alone."

Since Allison said that she had some conclusions about her, Dawn's interest was piqued. "Well, just be careful next time, alright Allison?" Lori asked, drawing a nod of agreement from the Ace woman. With her business at the Santiago residence done, Allison took her leave, with Skoll and Hati following her the instant she told them it was time to go. When Allison and her two dogs were gone, the twins, having heard bits and pieces of what the adults said, turned to look at Lori.

"Hey mom," Lincoln began, "What were you and Aunt Allison talking about?"

"It's nothing to be worried about, sweetie," Lori said to her son, "Your aunt was just confused by something about Dawn that was just a trick of the light."

"Oh," Lily said in a casual tone from where she sat on the sofa, straightening herself out a bit, "You mean how Allison referred to Dawn as something called a Sinborn?"

The instant Lily said the word 'Sinborn', Dawn was instantly alarmed, although she did her best to hide her alarm, thankfully not catching attention from either of her nine-year-old cousins. After all, the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl had every reason to be alarmed that someone referred to her as being something called a Sinborn.

That's because, six months ago, when Dawn went on a personal quest of sorts to find out the truth of her parentage, she discovered that her Uncle Lincoln is her biological father. At first, Dawn was worried about some of the adults in her family were cheating on each other, but then she learned that her Uncle Lincoln was her father via sperm donation, which explained how Sam, Dawn's mother who she was told is the one who gave birth to her, became pregnant with her.

…Except that Dawn also learned that it was actually her mother _Luna_ that gave birth to her, due to some incredibly bad mix-up, both Sharp women falling asleep at a very inopportune time, and sheer incompetence on part of two doctors working at the local fertility clinic. As her mother Luna and Uncle Lincoln (actually her father) are biological siblings both born from the same pair of parents, this means that Dawn is technically, albeit in a rather unorthodox and roundabout manner, inbred.

At first, Dawn thought that she was some freak, a sick abomination, and was beginning to withdraw into herself. Thankfully, thanks in part to a quick talk from her Uncle Aggro, Dawn was able to avoid falling into despair. She was able to remain herself. Sure, learning the truth of her parentage shocked Dawn, but she was able to adjust to it, get used to the idea that she was, technically, the result of what is far and wide considered to be taboo. Learning that truth did nothing to change how anything else in Dawn's life was dictated; why would learning it change anything from then on out?

In fact, Dawn decided to, in her own way, try and own the fact that she was (technically) inbred; after happening upon the term 'Sinborn' in an old journal that had belonged to her Aunt Allison, Dawn decided to, in a moment that some might consider to be ironic, use 'Sinborn' as her gamer handle, the name that she would enter for herself whenever she had to enter a name in a video game. As a matter of fact, Dawn had named her character in the video game that she was playing at the moment as Sinborn. Thankfully, no one had noticed that factoid as of yet, otherwise Dawn felt that she might have had a lot to explain.

"Yes Lily, that," Lori replied, a clear hint of annoyance in her tone, "Allison was just confused by something she thought she saw, but it ended up just being a trick of the light, like I said."

"Hmm?" Ronnie Anne said as she turned to regard her older cousin, "Are you okay, Dawn?"

"I-it's nothing," Dawn replied, "I'm just a bit shocked that I'm the center of so much attention. It's not something that I'm all that used to." With insistence from Lori, the matter of Allison's confusion was dropped, and things returned to as much normalcy as they could. Still, Dawn had a feeling that she couldn't shake, a feeling that things might reach something of a fever pitch.

She had no idea that they were, nor did she know that they weren't going to do so for the reasons she was suspecting.

END, CHAPTER ONE

Author's notes:

Yeah, I wasn't going to jump into the meat of this story's plot in the first chapter; I was only trying to set a few things up, as well as get certain things up to speed. But anyway, yeah, this is the first chapter of 'The great Royal Woods inquiry', the sequel to 'What she ended up learning', being set six months after the end of 'WSEUL'. The next chapter will see Lori and Dawn go to the estate sale mentioned earlier in this chapter, and it will be there that Dawn will happen upon the thing that will set off one of the greatest court cases in Royal Woods history.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

The great Royal Woods inquiry

Chapter two: Evidence uncovered

With Lily agreeing to watch the twins, Lori was able to head to the estate sale that her sister-in-law Allison told her about a few days ago. Accompanying Lori was her niece Dawn, the fifteen-year-old daughter of Lori and Lily's sister Luna and Luna's wife Sam. The two women walked up to the large one-story reddish-brown brick house where the estate sale was being held.

Upon walking inside, Lori and Dawn were greeted by a woman roughly the same age as Lori and Lily's sister Luan, another one of Dawn's aunts from the Loud family. This woman was fair-skinned, had straight long black hair, wore a pinkish sweater, bluish pants, brown shoes and green circle-framed glasses. The woman was also rather well-fed.

"Is this the estate sale for Chandler's friend Sid?" Lori asked the woman.

"Yeah, this is the estate sale," the woman replied, a hint of somberness in her tone, "Sid was my younger brother, you know. I'm still a little upset that he lost his battle with cancer."

"Oh, I'm literally sorry about the fact that your younger brother died," Lori said in a sympathetic tone to Sid's older sister.

"My family's adjusting as best we can," Sid's sister remarked. Gesturing to the inside of the house, Sid's sister continued, "I got my teenage sons helping me with the sale. Neither of them are acting like they're affected by their uncle's passing; they're just acting like how teenage boys always act. I ought to sign them up for a meeting with a grief counselor." Lori nodded once in agreement before she and Dawn were led into the estate sale by Sid's sister.

* * *

Dawn felt a bit in awe by all of the stuff she saw in the home of the late Sid. The man clearly valued trying to make his pad as cool and awesome as possible. Sure, some of the choices in décor struck the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl as a tad tacky, but that can be easily attributed to the differences in taste between a girl in her mid-teens and a man in his early thirties. And even so, Sid still had a number of things that caught Dawn's attention.

Dawn was particularly ecstatic to not only find a Playtendo 69 with a notable selection of games, but everything was in pristine condition, as if the antique game system was hardly ever played. But from what Sid's sister said on the matter, her late younger brother regularly played video games, including the games for his Playtendo 69; Dawn deduced from what the well-fed woman said that the late Sid took very good care of his stuff.

After she checked the asking price for the collection of old games and the game system, Dawn decided to buy it; the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl had a notably generous allowance, not to mention how she was very good at saving. As she carried the box that the game system and games were in, Dawn saw that, along the wall in the room she was in, there was a desk that had a small shelf above the desk surface. There was also a selection of books on the shelf, along with a carved wooden figure of a wolf sitting upright.

As she looked at the row of books, she noticed that one of the books looked like a personal journal. Remembering her search for answers about her parentage six months ago, and how personal journals she uncovered during said search gave her valuable insight, Dawn decided to go over to the desk, set the box she was holding down on the desk, select the book that got her attention, and give it a look-see.

As Dawn had suspected, it was a personal journal; from the first page alone, Dawn could tell that it was kept by the late Sid, as he identified himself as the journal's writer slash owner within the first paragraph, located at the top of the page. Reading the rest of the first page and the first half of the second, Dawn deduced that Sid had kept this journal back when he was in his late teens; that put it at around the same time that Dawn's Uncle (slash father) Lincoln was in his late teens as well. The fifteen-year-old Sharp girl, driven by curiosity and captivation, continued to read the journal of the late Sid;

_Chandler, Frank, Trent, Richie and I were hanging out after school today, as we usually do. Chandler, as per usual, was still pretty bummed that the girl he's got a crush on, Astrid Ace, rejected him in favor of that dorky Clyde McBride dork who is friends with Lincoln Loud. The guys and I know that Chandler says that he'd admitted defeat in this case, that Clyde's won Astrid's heart fair and square, and that he'll respect the relationship because it's what makes Astrid happy. But still, the boys and I have never seen Chandler this bummed out, nor have we ever seen him bummed out for such a length of time._

Dawn was surprised by everything that she had read in Sid's journal thus far; the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl was gaining more insight into the past of her uncle (slash father) and his peers. This journal also mentioned Clyde McBride by name; Dawn knew very little about this Clyde fellow, except that he was apparently best friends with Uncle Lincoln back well before Dawn was born, and that Clyde had been found murdered when he was seventeen, just two years older than Dawn was right now.

Dawn was very curious about what else this old journal would be able to tell her, but she was taken out of her thoughts when she heard a male teenage voice say, "I'm guessing that's an interesting book?" A bit startled, Dawn looked up and saw one of the two teenaged nephews of the late Sid, standing about two feet away. With a mildly amused look on his face, the teenage boy said, "If you're interested in buying it, mom told me and my brother that all books are a dollar each." Leaning to his side, the teenage boy continued as he pointed to the box that Dawn had sat on the desk, "This that the old game system that my uncle had?"

"Y-yeah," Dawn replied, "I was interested in buying that as well." Luckily for Dawn, she was able to pay for both of the items she wanted to get by just giving the money to the teenage boy; since the teenage boy couldn't make change, he asked Dawn to wait in that room so he could get her the five dollar difference. After the teenage boy came back with Dawn's change, the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl put her change in her left front pocket, slipped Sid's journal into the box with the games and game system, and then gathered her purchases before heading out of the room to meet with her Aunt Lori.

Dawn found her Aunt Lori examining some glassware at a table set up in the kitchen. "Oh, I take it you found something you wanted?" Lori asked her niece as she pointed to the box that Dawn was holding. Looking into the box, Lori spotted the antique game console and accompanying games. "Hmm," the Santiago woman remarked, a good hint of knowingness in her tone, "I bet that your Uncle Lincoln would give you props on getting something like this."

Lori took a few more minutes looking around the estate sale before she was finished; she found a few items that she ended up buying, including a drinking goblet that she bet Allison would be jealous of. With purchases made, Lori and Dawn took their leave from the estate sale, satisfied with what they got. Dawn in particular was interested in checking out what she got when she got back home. Lori, noticing that her niece seemed a bit excited, suspected that this was because Dawn wanted to take a crack at the antique game console, and while that belief did hold some degree of truth, it wasn't all that the fifteen-year-old was excited about. In fact, it wasn't even the main thing about what Dawn purchased at the estate sale that Dawn was excited to check out.

It was a trip to the past that Dawn wanted to check out.

* * *

Later, back at the Santiago residence, Dawn was laying on her stomach on her bed in her room, the Playtendo 69 having been set up to the TV in Dawn's room (as it did back at the estate sale, the system was running perfectly, as a quick test with one of the games that came with the system, Yokaimon Stadium, confirmed), but Dawn wasn't playing it at the moment. Instead, she was reading the late Sid's journal from his late teen years. It mentioned multiple people by name who Dawn knows, with many of those people being members of Dawn's extended family.

_Yesterday was the senior prom, and to my personal surprise, not only did Lincoln Loud win prom king, but Lincoln's girlfriend, Ronnie Anne Santiago, won prom queen. Kind of an odd pair to be prom king and queen, a skinny dork and a chubby Mexican, if you ask me. Still, everyone cheered for them. As my date and I looked around at all the people cheering, I spotted Clyde and Astrid applauding the pair as well._

_I had earlier seen Chandler, who like the other guys showed up to prom without a date, looking in the direction of Clyde and Astrid. I could tell from the look I saw on Chandler's face, a look of somber longing mixed with understanding envy, that he was still bummed about having lost his crush to one of the dorks here at school._

_Not helping the matter was that Chandler just gotten out of the hospital after accidentally suffering a break in his left shin; I saw the cast on his leg as he hobbled into the gymnasium, crutches under both arms. I'm surprised that Chandler was even able to make it to prom; you'd figure that, with his crush going with someone else and a cast on his leg, that Chandler wouldn't even bother trying to come to prom. But he was there all the same. I got to give the man props, if only for determination._

_But all of that is beside the point. The point is that Frank, Trent, Richie and I can't stand to see our pal Chandler like this. He brought us together, led many charges, and made us the force that everyone respects and/or fears so much that we are today. The guys and I wouldn't have any of what we got today if it wasn't for Chandler. That being said, Trent said that he wanted to meet with me, Frank and Richie sometime today after school, saying something about setting things right and bringing Chandler out of his funk. I'm…not too sure about what Trent has in mind; he's not planning some secret plan to get McBride to break up with Astrid so that Chandler can date her, is he?_

Dawn took a brief break from reading Sid's journal, looking up at the screen of her TV, which was currently displaying a side-scrolling platformer game of some kind for her recently bought Playtendo 69, as she considered everything that she had just read in the journal. It wasn't what Dawn was expecting at all.

A secret plan, a conspiracy, kept secret between four friends that were keeping said secret from a fifth, with one of the secret keepers eventually even taking his share of the secret to his grave? The fifteen-year-old Sharp girl was excited. Eager to see where this was leading, Dawn got up so that she sat upright on her bed, sitting with her legs crossed, before she pressed onwards, and heading onto the next entry in the late Sid's journal.

_We did it. We actually did it. We fucking actually fucking did it. Holy shit Frank, Trent, Richie and I are all dead if word of what we did last night gets out._

_I'm still quite frankly surprised that Trent was able to get McBride to come with him to that one factory in the abandoned part of town, where Frank, Richie and I were all waiting. After McBride walked into the factory with Trent following him inside while closing the door behind him, everything that followed just…it all just happened so fast._

_Everything was so shocking that it's impossible for me to forget. I distinctly remember that it was Trent who started things by whacking McBride in the back of his head with a baseball bat, knocking the guy out and knocking him over onto the ground. Then the guys and I, without even thinking, just started wailing on the poor dude with bats and pipes; I think that Frank even pulled out that pocket knife of his and stabbed McBride a few times._

_What…what the fuck did we do?! What the fuck are we going to do?! I hope like hell that the other guys all keep this to themselves like how Trent made us all swear to do last night. I highly doubt that anyone would even believe any of us, even if we did tell the truth._

Without even realizing it, Dawn let her grip on the journal slip, allowing the journal to fall into her lap. The fifteen-year-old Sharp girl couldn't believe what she had just read; did the late Sid really have a part in murdering someone sometime long ago? After she had regained her senses, Dawn picked the journal back up, opened it back to the entry that she was reading, and reread the words written on the page.

It…it was true. The late Sid, in his own written words here in the journal, confessed that he and the other three guys who are friends with Dawn's Uncle Chandler lured someone to a secluded area before they all beat him to death. She…she just couldn't believe what she had just read, and as she pressed onward, Dawn's previously mentioned excitement over discovering a possible conspiracy was replaced with the dread of happening upon a horrible truth as she became more and more terrified with what she was reading with each passing word.

_Local police here in Royal Woods still have no idea who it was that killed McBride about a week ago, as they failed to discoverer any significant evidence at the scene of the crime, from what I have been able to gather on the matter. I believe that fact played some contributing part to the overall atmosphere at McBride's funeral today. The guys and I all came to the funeral; Chandler because he wanted to pay respects, and me, Frank, Trent and Richie because we wanted to keep an eye on things to make sure we stay covered, lest someone at the funeral was somehow able to piece things together. Thankfully, nothing along those lines ever happened._

_Sometime during the funeral, Trent and Frank spotted Astrid Ace somewhere off to the side crying. It was Trent who first started to encourage Chandler to go speak with her. Chandler was completely unsure about doing it, given that Astrid was crying at her boyfriend's funeral, but he eventually relented when Frank joined Trent in encouraging him. The last thing that I saw about that matter was Ronnie Anne Santiago looking in Chandler's direction with a look of disgust on her face. I also saw her whip out her phone and send a text to someone. I have no idea who she could be trying to get ahold of; Lincoln Loud, maybe?_

Dawn took a break from reading the late Sid's journal, as what she had just gone over sparked something in her memory. Dawn placed a bookmark in the journal to keep her place before she got up and ran over to her closet; opening it, she squatted down to grab ahold of a box sitting on the floor in her closet. Opening the box, the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl rummaged around before she pulled out what she was looking for, a collection of old personal journals.

Dawn, in her search from six months ago for the truth of her parentage, came upon all of these journals; she went through all of them in the hopes that one of them might have held some bit of info that would either tell Dawn what she wanted to know, or at the very least lead her in the right direction. Although all of the journals she found ultimately failed to provide her with any relevant information at all, the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl still found them interesting to read, as they all gave her some insight on how their owners, all adult relatives of Dawn's, were like back in their youth, sometime before Dawn was born. The specific journal that Dawn was looking for belonged to her Uncle (slash father) Lincoln.

Finding the journal in question, Dawn flipped it open and began pouring over the pages, looking for the relevant entries. When she found what she was looking for, Dawn took Lincoln's old journal over to her bed. She compared what was in the specific entry in Lincoln's journal to the entry in the late Sid's journal that Dawn had most recently read. The similarities in the stories told by both journals was all that she needed to be sure. Dawn even checked further in both of the journals just to make sure.

There was no mistaking it. Dawn had uncovered evidence in a decades old cold case that not only very clearly pointed out a guilty party, but said evidence was also further backed by old written observations from the same time frame. The fifteen-year-old Sharp girl got up from her bed, walked backwards away from her bed until her back bumped into the wall behind her. She was scared by the weight of the significance of what she had uncovered. As such, Dawn did the first thing that she could think of.

"AUNT LORI!" Dawn screamed at the top of her lungs, the fright in her tone unmistakable.

* * *

Trent, Richie and Frank casually strolled into the house where the estate sale for their late friend was being held. "A damn shame that Chandler couldn't have joined us because he had pressing business to attend to," Frank remarked to the other two guys as they all entered the house, "I believe that he mentioned that he had an interest in scooping up Sid's Playtendo 69 and all the stuff that went with it."

"Well I guess one of us will just buy it and make him jealous," Richie replied in a casually joking tone, drawing a few chuckles from Trent and Frank as the three of them entered the house's living room. The group walked up to a fold-up table that had been set up; seated at the table were Sid's teenaged nephews. "Excuse me, boys," Richie began, getting the attention of the two teenagers, "I don't suppose your uncle's old Playtendo 69 is up for sale, is it?"

"Oh, hey Mr. Richie, Mr. Frank, Mr. Trent," the first teenage boy replied in greeting as he and his brother greeted the three men, "Yeah, sorry. Some girl bought it and all the gear that went with it earlier today."

"Seriously?" Frank said, "It's already gone?"

Nodding once in the affirmative, the first teenage boy replied in an apologetic tone, "Yeah, sirs, sorry about that, but Uncle Sid's old games are already gone. In fact, I was the one who sold the stuff to that girl. She also bought one of Uncle Sid's old books, but I don't think that's really all that important in regards to the issue of Uncle Sid's old games."

"Uncle Sid's favorite leather armchair is still here," the second teenage boy pointed out, trying to sound as helpful as possible, "If any of you are interested."

Gently shaking his head, Trent said, "Sorry, but we aren't interested in your uncle's old armchair."

"Speak for yourself, man," Frank remarked, "It's one of those fancy plush numbers. I'm going to be coming by with my truck later today to pick it up." Turning to regard the two teenage boys, Frank asked, "How much is the chair?"

"I don't know," the second teenage boy replied with a shrug, "I wasn't the one who put the price sticker on it. I think it's in one of the guest bedrooms, though, if you want to go check." Frank nodded once in thanks before he set off to find Sid's chair that he wanted.

Turning to face Richie, Trent said, "Well man, we ought to check things out here. If Sid was anything like you, Frank, Chandler and I, his place will be loaded with awesome taste in furniture, décor and the like." Richie nodded once in agreement before he proceeded to follow Trent to explore what the estate sale had to offer.

* * *

Over at the local police station, a team of forensics were going over the collection of old journals in a lab; it was mostly just checking what was written in Sid's journal and compare it to what was written in the others, particularly Lincoln's. Outside of the room where the journals were being looked at, the police chief was talking to Lori and Dawn, the latter of the pair looking very much rattled.

"We're still checking things in evidence, Mrs. Santiago," the police chief said to Lori, "But from the looks of things, the evidence that your niece just provided to us can be used to finally solve the McBride cold case." With a gentle shake of his head, the police chief added with a slight scoff, "That murder's had us stumped for just a little over two decades."

"This is…" Lori began, sounding rather shocked, "…This is all still quite a lot to take in." Turning to regard her niece, Lori said, "But I would like to know what you were doing with all of those journals."

"Remember when I went on the hunt for info about the truth of my parentage six months ago, Aunt Lori?" Dawn began. After the Santiago woman nodded once in the affirmative, Dawn continued, "Yeah, I came across most of those journals during my search and read through them in the hopes that one of them would mention something relevant to what I wanted to find out." Pointing to the door that led into evidence, the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl continued, "I bought that journal at the estate sale earlier because it mentioned some of my aunts and uncles by name, so I figured that-"

Dawn was cut off when one of the examiners in the evidence room came out and handed a report to the police chief. The chief gave the report a good but quick review. "…Alright, then," the chief said to the examiner who handed him the report, and with a nod of thanks added, "Thank you, Ian. Let me know if anything else pops up."

The examiner nodded once in acknowledgement before he turned back around and went back into the room that he came from. "…Yeah," the chief said to Lori as he held the report in his right hand as he gave it a gentle smack with the back of his left, "The boys believe that there is enough evidence to bring in some of the people that are mentioned in the dead guy's journal for some questioning."

"Are you serious, officer?" Lori asked, her eyes widening with surprise.

Nodding once in the affirmative, the chief replied, "What was written in some of the journals we examined lines up with details of the McBride cold case. It's an opportunity that we couldn't pass up." To Lori, the chief said while gesturing to Dawn, "Now then, Mrs. Santiago, since it was your niece here who submitted the evidence to us, we'll be needing to keep in touch with her, although as you are her guardian, you have the right to be there for her."

"I, umm, excuse me, sir," Dawn began, clearly sounding nervous as she got the chief's attention, "If…if what I brought here ends up leading to a bunch of legal stuff like arrests and cases in court and the like, will I be in trouble?"

"Certainly not, young lady," the chief said, his tone and expression gentle and reassuring, "You will not get into any trouble here."

"Sorry about my niece being nervous, officer," Lori said to the chief, "But all of what's been happening within the last few hours has her on edge."

"It's quite alright, ma'am," the chief replied in an understanding tone. With a look of consideration on his face, the chief continued, "Say, Mrs. Santiago, you said that your niece's last name is Sharp, right? I don't suppose that she's related to those famous musicians Sam and Luna Sharp, is she?"

"Dawn is actually their daughter," Lori explained, "And I'm Luna's older sister."

With a bit of a chuckle in his tone, the chief remarked, "Well then, I'm glad that my daughter Molly isn't here. She's a major fan of your sister and sister-in-law, and she'd flip if she knew that their kid was here. Molly would probably try to become best friends with your niece."

"My parents being famous is part of the reason why I prefer to be socially invisible so much," Dawn commented as both adults turned to face her, sounding mildly embarrassed, "It's kind of embarrassing when people freak out over me because my folks are celebrity musicians."

"Hmm," the chief remarked, "That would go a long way to explain why the rumors of Sam and Luna having a kid were just that; rumors. …Well, until now, that is."

"Could…" Dawn began to say to the chief, looking mildly nervous, "…Could you not tell people about me? Very few people are aware that I even exist, and I'd prefer it if stayed like that."

The police chief nodded once in understanding, saying that he wouldn't even tell his daughter Molly about this. After a few more things were taken care of, Lori and Dawn took their leave from the police station. As the two of them got into Lori's car, Dawn remarked, "That was one of the single-scariest things that I've ever been through in my entire life."

"Dawn, sweetie, you did great," Lori replied in a reassuring tone as she stuck the key into the ignition and turned her car on. After the car's engine came to life, Lori continued as she drove out of the police station parking lot, "And if what the police in there said is true, then what you did today will bring justice to your father's friend."

"Hmm," Dawn said as she blankly, boredly, stared out the passenger window. Lori decided to let Dawn be, knowing that everything that the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl had to do today was rather taxing for her on an emotional level.

As the two of them drove back home, Dawn's mind was going over everything that she had learned, everything that she had gone through. The whole lot of it was way more than what she was ever expecting. Dawn thought that the journal she bought at the estate sale would be nothing more than another glimpse into the past of her various adult relatives, to see what things were like for them before she was born.

…Instead, she came across evidence that brought new light to a decades-old cold case, evidence that Dawn thought she most likely would never come across if it hadn't been for her going on the hunt for the truth of her parentage six months ago. Dawn had not felt this confused, this scared, since the day of that aforementioned hunt for the truth, which ultimately lead to Dawn finding out that she was inbred.

As Lori's car continued to go down the road, Dawn wondered how things were going to proceed from this point moving forward.

* * *

Astrid walked out of the private bathroom attached to the master bedroom in the house she lived in with her husband Chandler. The half-Swedish half-Japanese woman was holding something that she had previously bought at the Royal Woods pharmacy after waking up feeling nauseated, tired and constipated for the fourth day in a row, although today was the first of those days in which Astrid actually had to throw up.

The mixed heritage woman was holding her pharmacy store purchase, a clear look of worry on her face. "…Come on, come on…" Astrid muttered to herself, clearly sounding like she hoped that the reason that she bought the item she held was just in her head, and that everything was all just some sort of fluke, even though she recalled what she had been doing with her husband a little over a month ago.

Given how Astrid was acting, it was understandable that she sighed in a worried tone when the home pregnancy test that she held showed a positive result. "…Great," the Swedish-Japanese woman muttered to herself, "I'm pregnant." Walking back into the private bathroom, she hid the positive-result test among her bathroom belongings.

Astrid had no way of knowing how she was going to break this news to Chandler. She knew that the last thing he needed when his work was getting complicated like it was right now was being told that his wife was carrying his child. But Astrid also didn't know if she should wait to tell her husband until after she went over this with someone else, or have Chandler be the first person she told that she was pregnant. The Swedish-Japanese woman figured that, before anything else, that it'd be a good idea to do something more reliable that a home pregnancy test to determine if she really did have a bun in the oven right now.

Astrid knew that her sister-in-law Leni's younger sister Lisa, along with Lisa's husband David, worked at a local lab in Royal Woods, and that they had all sorts of specialized machines, including a few related to things of a medical nature. Maybe Lisa and David would be able to help Astrid determine beyond a shadow of a doubt whether or not if she was pregnant. Astrid went about putting the positive test in a plastic bag that she then put in her purse (Astrid was intending to present this to Lisa and David as the reason why she was going to ask them for help in regards to her concerns), then when she had taken care of that, Astrid called her sister-in-law Leni, who's married to Astrid's older brother Aggro.

"Hello? Leni?" Astrid said into her phone when the call went though.

"Hey, Astrid!" an adult woman's voice, one that sounded like it came from a woman slightly older than Astrid, replied on the other end, "What's up? Are you looking for Aggro?"

"That would be really appreciated, Leni," Astrid replied, "But I'd also like you to help me as well. Something's come up just now and I could use a lot of support, and I figured that my older brother would be able to provide a lot of that support, although I could also use some womanly help right now as well. And before you ask, this isn't something that I want Chandler to know about, at least not right away."

"Why?" Leni's voice replied, immediately sounding concerned, "What's going on?"

"I just need you and Aggro to come here and give me a lift to the lab where your sister and her husband works," Astrid explained, "They should be able to help me with what I need while keeping things as discrete as possible."

"…Alright, Astrid," Leni's voice said, "I'll call Aggro at his family's restaurant and let him know what's going on. We should be coming by within the next thirty minutes to an hour."

The Swedish-Japanese woman breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Leni," Astrid remarked, "I'll be seeing you and Aggro soon. Bye." Astrid then ended the call and slipped her phone into her purse. As she breathed another sigh of relief, Astrid was glad that she was going to get help in figuring things out before she could properly let other people know about it.

Knowing that she had to get ready for a trip into town, Astrid went about checking herself, gathering up an appropriate outfit and whatnot. As she did this, she heard the bedroom door open rather forcefully, startling her and making her look over as a result. Astrid saw Chandler, looking mildly alarmed, as he stood there. "Cha-Chandler," Astrid stammered, "Umm, you didn't hear much of-"

"You know my friends Frank, Trent and Richie?" Chandler said, cutting his wife off without even having heard what she said. A bit confused by what was going on, Astrid nonetheless nodded a few times in the affirmative; after all, Astrid had seen her husband hang out with his friends quite frequently. The Swedish-Japanese woman had no idea why Chandler would ask her about his friends while acting in this manner, and when Chandler told her what he said next, she couldn't believe it.

"All three of them were just arrested," Chandler explained, clearly looking a mix of freaked and angry, "They're being charged with murder in Clyde's cold case!"

END, CHAPTER TWO

Author's notes:

What's this? A secret conspiracy related to a decades-old murder? A pregnancy being kept from the father-to-be? Things are certainly starting to get interesting now! …In all seriousness, for those of you who have been wondering why it had been mentioned during the events of 'What she ended up learning' that Clyde was murdered, well…it was leading up to the plot of this story, which will be seeing a greater number of serious things in comparison to 'WSEUL'.

Anyway, the next chapter will see family members asking about what's going on, accusations being thrown around, preparations for appearances in court, someone finding out a disheartening fact about an older relative's opinions, and someone happening upon something that they should not have happened upon. Things look to be building up over the next few chapter, ultimately leading to an end that I don't think a lot of you will see coming.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

The great Royal Woods inquiry

Chapter three: Things building up

To say that Dawn was nervous would be a bit of an understatement. Because of her turning over those journals to the RWPD, they were able to gather evidence that not only allowed them to reopen the decades-old McBride cold case, but also eventually make arrests in said cold case. The fifteen-year-old Sharp girl was worried that this might come back to bite her on her butt, seeing as how she was technically responsible for getting three men arrested.

And that wasn't all. Because the three men are heavily associated with Dawn's Uncle Chandler, Chandler's wife (also Dawn's aunt) Astrid became disappointed in and disgusted with her husband; understandably so, given that the guy that Chandler's friends murdered twenty some odd years ago was Astrid's boyfriend before she started going out with Chandler. Dawn shuddered to think what would happen if she mentioned what she knew about the men actually killing that Clyde fellow because it would leave Astrid available for Chandler to scoop up.

Right now, Dawn was at her Aunt Lori and Uncle Bobby's place, where she lived with the aforementioned aunt and uncle pair, along with Lori and Bobby's children, the Santiago twins Lincoln and Ronnie Anne. Bobby was out at the moment, but everyone else in the family was present. Not only that, but they were entertaining a guest, that being Lucy Spokes (nee Loud), one of Lori's younger sisters and one of the aunts of Dawn and the Santiago twins.

Lucy looked as she usually did; long black hair whose bangs she allowed to cover her eyes, a black casual long-sleeved blouse, black skirt, and black shoes, with black-and-white stripped stockings going up, disappearing into the Spokes woman's skirt. However, there were some notable differences in Lucy's appearance, differences that one would be able to pick up on if they were familiar enough with the gothic woman. Her normally light grayish pale skin had something of a glow to it; additionally, Lucy had a noticeable belly that was _not_ the result of a penchant for snacking frequently.

"So Lucy," Lori began in a conversational tone as she entered the living room with two cups containing beverages; the Santiago woman sat down on the sofa, sitting on her younger sister's right side, before handing her one of the cups. Lori's children were sitting on the floor watching some cartoon, and Dawn sat in a nearby plush leather armchair, reading one of her manga graphic novels. "How much longer do you think it will be until you and Rocky welcome your first child into the world?" Lori asked.

Gently placing her left hand (her right hand held her beverage) on her belly, Lucy replied, "I'm getting very close to the nine-month mark, so I suspect that it won't be too much longer." The gothic woman spoke in a sort of monotone that one would figure was normally devoid of any emotion. However, Lucy's tone contained some hint of happy excitement, suggesting that she was wishing that her baby would hurry up and come out already.

"Have you and Rocky thought of any names yet?" Lori asked.

"Rocky's brother Rusty wants us to name the kid after him if it's a boy," Lucy said, "Although both Rocky and I already agreed upon Randy for a boy name. And if our child is a girl, I'm considering the name Harriet, after our great-grandmother."

"It's a bit of an old-fashioned name," Lori remarked, "You sure?"

Lucy only nodded once in the affirmative, making it clear her mind wouldn't be changed. "But enough about me and my soon-to-be-born child," Lucy began, "Rocky and I both heard about how three men associated with Astrid's husband were all arrested on charges related to Clyde's murder twenty some odd years ago." Her attention firmly on her older sister, Lucy asked, "Does everyone in our family know about this?"

"I called mom and dad and let them know," the Santiago woman began to explain, "I also called Leni to let her know, but Aggro told me that he and Leni already know because Astrid is staying with them for the time being, due to her being disgusted with Chandler. I've already called Luan and Lynn to let them know what's going on, and they said they'd help spread the word to the rest of our siblings and their-"

Lori was cut off when she heard a somewhat loud banging on her front door, followed by the familiar voice of Allison Ace bellowing in a clearly angry tone, "BRING ME CHANDLER!", and that bellowing was followed by the booming barking of the twin Tibetan Mastiffs Skoll and Hati, the tones of their barking making it clear that they wholeheartedly agreed with and were ready to back their owner in whatever matter was making her seek someone's head. Sighing in a resigned tone, Lori got up from where she sat on the sofa next to her very pregnant younger sister before she walked over to the door to answer it.

…

"…Although there's reason to believe he may have some involvement," Lori said as she finished some explanations to Allison, "Your younger sister's husband technically hasn't been charged with anything as of yet, so it would be wise to at the very least wait until he's been confirmed to have some involvement in the ongoing case." Placing a hand on her sister-in-law's shoulder in a gesture of sympathy, Lori continued, "Trust me, Allison. I literally know all too well how you're feeling right now. But we can't afford to jump the gun here."

As both women were standing in the kitchen to have their conversation, Lucy, Dawn, the Santiago twins, Skoll and Hati all waited in the living room. Lucy was currently learning of Lily's plight, as she sat sandwiched between the two Tibetan Mastiffs, who both got up and sat next to the gothic woman on the sofa. One was licking the right side of Lucy's face, occasionally sniffing her as well, while the other one sniffed at Lucy's belly. It was as if the two very large dogs knew that this woman was carrying a bun in the oven, and as such they wanted to stick by her side and keep her safe from any potential harm.

After a while, Lori and Allison came out of the kitchen, and despite the seriousness of their conversation, neither of them could help but chuckle in amused manners when they saw Skoll and Hati sticking close to the pregnant Lucy. "You can't ask for better protectors while you're pregnant than those two," Allison remarked to Lucy from the kitchen, "I'd like to see someone try to give you trouble when there's Skoll and Hati to worry about!"

"Obviously, especially since both are named after various wolves from Norse mythology," Lucy replied, a hint of dryness in her tone. Lucy got up from where she sat, then turned to regard the two slightly older women. "I'm going to be needing help getting home," Lucy remarked, "And since Rocky's busy with the car…"

"I'll drive you," Lori replied. To Allison, Lori said, "Are you going to be staying here until I get back or are you heading out as well?"

"I need to get going, I'm afraid," Allison replied, "I just got a call from Sigurd, who is busy with work at Odin-Dono's since Aggro and the seamstress are busy helping Astrid settle in at their place while she's staying with them. Sigurd needs me to come in and help." Jerking a thumb at her two Tibetan Mastiffs, Allison continued, "And I have to take Skoll and Hati home before I can head off to Odin-Dono's, especially since I need to feed them."

Lori nodded in understanding to her sister-in-law. After giving Dawn the usual instructions when she leaves her in-charge of looking after the twins, Lori escorted Lucy out so she could take her home. A few seconds later, Allison left with Skoll and Hati. When the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl and her younger cousins were alone, Ronnie Anne let out a bit of a giggle.

"It was kind of cute how Aunt Allison's dogs were being so protective of Aunt Lucy because she's going to have a baby really soon," Ronnie Anne remarked, "I bet they'd be really good guard dogs, especially given how big they both are."

Dawn wasn't paying much mind to her younger cousin's words, as she still had her worries about the ongoing investigation into her Uncle Chandler and his various friends. The fifteen-year-old Sharp girl knew that a fair portion of her extended family wasn't all that fond of Uncle Chandler. Could everything that has been coming to light as of late give a good reason as to why that was?

There was just too many questions.

* * *

Sometime the following morning, Dawn was at the old Loud residence, where her grandparents lived. Dawn remembered how she came here six months ago during her search for information that could lead to discovering the truth of her parentage, how she obtained many personal journals that, although none of them ultimately helped in Dawn's personal quest, they were still insightful reads that gave the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl insight into the pasts of some of her aunts, as well as her Uncle Lincoln.

…Who, as it turned out, is her father.

But I digress. Dawn came to the old Loud residence to check in on her grandparents. She was sitting off to the side in the living room as her Grandma Rita and Grandpa Lynn Sr. were both talking about recent events. Rita looked the same as she did when Dawn visited her six months ago. Lynn Sr., similar to his wife, had shown some change over the years. Although his style in outfit was basically unchanged from twenty-one years ago, it was basically the only thing about Lynn Sr. that didn't change; the fair-skinned man had some signs of age on his skin, what with wrinkles and all. His hair, which was already somewhat balding twenty-one years ago, was now even more balding, with only graying brownish hair on the sides of his head (none on top) left. The older Loud man was also noticeably bigger around the belly, but not yet quite enough for Lynn Sr. to reach the three-hundred pound mark. He was getting close, though.

"Can you believe it, Rita?" Lynn Sr. said as he gave the newspaper he was reading a gentle smack with the back of his right hand, "Those three friends and business associates of Chandler's were all arrested in relation to Clyde's murder over twenty years ago!"

"Wait, wasn't Clyde one of Lincoln's friends?" Rita asked, clearly looking shocked.

"He was our son's best friend," Lynn Sr. clarified, "Not to mention the fact that Clyde's fathers Harold and Howard were good men that were close friends of ours before they moved out of Michigan." Sighing in a resigned tone, Lynn Sr. continued, "It's a damn shame what happened to the McBrides. I bet that, if Clyde were still alive today, he would have made Harold and Howard into grandparents by now. That Astrid girl was rather sweet on Clyde, you know, and given how things ended up with our son and Maria's daughter, I could have seen a child produced by Clyde and Astrid being a possibility."

"Yeah, I can see Harold and Howard being doting grandparents to a grandchild," Rita remarked in a tone of agreement. With a curious look on her face, the older Loud woman added, "It would have been a rather unique grandchild as well, given that he or she would have been half African American, one-quarter Swedish and one-quarter Japanese."

"Now that would have been an interesting mix to see," Lynn Sr. remarked before he returned his attention to his newspaper. After a few seconds, the older Loud man snorted in disgust. "How the hell could such an abomination even be brought into the world?" Lynn Sr. practically sneered, his tone showing that what he was looking at filled him with nothing but disgust.

With a curious look on her face, Rita asked, "What is it, honey?"

Giving his newspaper another smack with the back of his left hand, Lynn Sr. explained, "There's an article in here about some boy winning a major sporting event for his school, which a lot of people believed he wouldn't even do all that well in because of the fact that he's inbred." When her grandfather finished explaining what disgusted him, Dawn, having heard it, became concerned. The fifteen-year-old Sharp girl knew that there were many people who held people with origins similar to Dawn's own in contempt, seeing them as nothing more than disgusting freaks and abominations that shouldn't even exist.

Because of what she learned about the truth of her parentage, Dawn was disheartened (although she didn't show it) to learn that her own grandfather is one such person. She dreaded what would happen should Grandpa Lynn learn that one of his own grandchildren was, in an admittedly rather roundabout and unorthodox way, inbred. Dawn also worried how her Grandma Rita would also react upon finding that out about one of her own grandchildren.

Curious about what her husband was reading, Rita got up and walked over to Lynn Sr.'s side so she could look over and see the article in question. "…It says in the article that the boy, named Lemy, miraculously doesn't have any of the issues that people normally associate with those who are inbred, and that his parentage doesn't change the fact that he's the same as the average boy his age," Rita remarked upon seeing the article and giving it a quick scan, "Not to mention how he's never given any grief by his peers and is in fact rather popular at his school." Turning to regard her husband, Rita continued, "He doesn't sound all that bad, dear."

"A horror, no matter how polished and gussied up, is still a horror," Lynn Sr. replied in a firm, disappointed tone, said tone making it clear that his mind on this matter would never be changed. With another snort of disgust, Lynn Sr. continued, "What in the name of God where that boy's parents even thinking?! They did know that what they did to produce their son was spitting in the face of everything decent, didn't they?"

As the two older people talked, Dawn, who went unnoticed by either grandparent, scrunched up little by little. The fifteen-year-old Sharp girl felt horrible, with new fresh nails being hammered into her heart by each spiteful word spoken by her grandfather. She hoped that she'd be able to get out of there as soon as possible, not wanting to stick around for a moment longer.

The longer she stayed, the more Dawn was afraid that she was going to cry.

* * *

Later that day, Dawn was riding her bike, taking something to her Aunt Lucy. The fifteen-year-old Sharp girl was actually on her way to her Aunt Lisa's place; apparently, Aunt Lisa was entertaining Aunt Lucy, along with Aunt Lola, Aunt Lana and Aunt Lily. Given the scientist woman's role in Dawn's personal quest from six months ago, Dawn worried that Lisa might accidentally let it slip about what she knows about the truth of Dawn's parentage.

However, Dawn reassured herself, knowing that her Aunt Lisa, along with Lisa's husband David who also knows, both swore to keep what they knew to themselves. Additionally, when she finally arrived at Lisa and David's place, Dawn calmed down significantly; Lisa, along with Lola, Lana and Lily, were all excitedly talking with Lucy. It was clear from what Dawn heard from them that they were all excited that Lucy was going to be giving birth really soon.

"Do you at least know if it's going to be a boy or a girl?" Lily asked.

Gently shaking her head in the negative, Lucy replied, "No, both Rocky and I want to be surprised."

"An expecting parent's prerogative," Lisa remarked in her usual dry monotone, sounding like she wasn't surprised in the least, "Not to mention a pattern followed by all of our older sisters and our sister-in-law Ronnie Anne." To Lucy, Lisa continued, "That being said, my offer to do an ultrasound to check the baby's gender still stands, if you want it."

"I'll pass, thank you," the gothic woman replied. Turning to regard Dawn, Lucy said, "What do you think, Dawn? Do you think I should learn what my baby's gender is as soon as possible?"

With a shrug, Dawn replied, "I think that should be left up to you and Uncle Rocky."

"Well obviously you'd side with Lucy," Dawn's Aunt Lana remarked; the mechanic woman looked somewhat similar to her twin sister Lola. A given, as they are twins. However, there were a good number of differences; Lana's hair was bound in twin pigtails that were long enough to reach about an inch down her shoulder blades, and she wore a red baseball cap on her head (backwards), a dark greenish shirt that had a slightly faded mechanical grease stain somewhere on the left side of the stomach, a pair of jeans, and white sneakers. It was clear that Lana was a vastly different person from her twin sister. Turning to face Lucy, Lana asked, "Have you at least settled on name ideas?"

"Randy if it's a boy, although Rocky's brother Rusty is still suggesting that we name a son after him," Lucy replied, "I'm still considering Harriet as an option for a girl, but Rocky came up with a few possible ideas that also sound appealing, such as Reggie and Ruby." With a hum while she gently tapped her lips with her right index finger, the gothic woman said, "Actually, now that I think about it, I like Ruby best out of all of Rocky's suggestions for a girl name. I may go for Ruby if my child is a girl."

"Now that sounds like a good name," Lola commented, "Not to mention the fact that ruby is the name of a valuable gem." With a sigh, Lola continued, "If you don't end up using Ruby as a name, then I might use it if Winston and I ever have a daughter. I can come up with something if Winston and I have a son instead." With a mildly annoyed sounding grunt, the pageant-winning woman said, "I just want to have a kid."

"Getting pregnant would do numbers on your body, which will in turn do numbers on your pageant career," Lana pointed out.

"I don't care," Lola retorted as she turned to face her twin, "And I can very easily get myself back into shape after having a kid." The conversation between the adult sisters continued on in a manner similar to how it's been going thus far for quite some time, even after Dawn had to take her leave, seeing as how she only came by to drop off the thing for Lucy.

…

As the five youngest Loud sister adults were still hanging around, they began to wander about at various times, mostly to find the bathroom that Lisa did not have some sort of crazy science set-up in. Coming back from such a trip to punish the toilet, Lily passed by a door that was left slightly ajar. Curious as to what was inside, Lily pushed the door open and saw that it was just an at-home office kept by Lisa and David, with a few folders spread out on the top of the large and somewhat ornate wooden desk.

Spotting a small crystal dish of soft caramels on the desk, Lily went inside to snatch a few pieces of the candy. When she got close enough, Lily spotted names written on the various tabs on the folders; she saw names such as _Lincoln Santiago_, _Haldor Aesir_, and _Asagi Ace_. "_Those are the names of me and my sisters' various nieces and nephews,_" Lily thought as she, out of curiosity, picked up the folder with Haldor's name on the tab.

After she flipped the file open, Lily saw that it contained multiple packets, each packet consisting of a few pages stapled together. Reading the first page of the first packet, Lily saw that it contained various info on Haldor, such as his date of birth, his parents being Lily's older sister Lynn and Lynn's husband Ulfric, a section that was set aside to list any allergies (Haldor had nothing in this field yet), and so on.

"_This is just various things about Haldor's health,_" Lily thought as she scanned the first packet in her nephew's folder. Checking the other packets confirmed that they were all just copies of the one that Lily had read. Lily put the packet back into the folder and sat the folder back down where she found it. "_Figures that Lisa, being a big-shot scientist and the family genius, would have files like these that doctors would find very useful,_" Lily thought as she examined the small pile of spread-out files on Lisa's desk, "_I believe that Lisa had similar such files on me and all of our siblings growing up. Hell, she probably still_-"

Lily stopped short in her thinking when, as her eyes gave the spread-out files a casual glance, they were caught on a folder whose tab read _Dawn Sharp_. "…_This is just too good an opportunity to pass up,_" Lily thought as she reached for Dawn's file; the young adult Loud woman knew very little about her teenage niece's history, medical or otherwise. If Dawn's file contained even half as much info about Dawn that Haldor's file contained about Haldor, then Lily thought that it would be well worth her time to check the file out.

Just like it was with Haldor's info, Lily saw that Dawn's info listed various things a doctor would be interested in knowing in regards to one's medical health and history. Dawn's date of birth was listed, Dawn's parents were listed as Lily's sister Luna and Lily's brother Lincoln, Dawn had an allergy to walnuts, and there was also a note about a long since-faded scar that was under Dawn's right eye, along with-

Stopping short, Lily, with a confused look on her face, went back to the section that listed Dawn's parents. Lily thought that she must have read things wrong, but after looking at things again, the young adult Loud woman was not mistaken; according to Lisa's file on Dawn, it was Luna who had given birth Dawn, as opposed to Sam which is what the entire family says. Dawn's file also listed Lincoln, who is Lily and Luna's brother, as the biological father, although a note was made stating that it was via sperm donation as opposed to fornication, and that said sperm donation should have gone to Sam but went to Luna instead due to a number of listed factors that Lily was too impatient to read.

Lily knew that this couldn't be right; if what Lisa's file on Dawn says is true, then the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl is, technically speaking, inbred. How would Lily's scientist sister even come by information like this? Lily knew that she had to look into this matter as soon as possible. Taking one of the packets in Dawn's folder, Lily folded it up a few times so that she could slip it into one of the back pockets on the shorts she was wearing; Lily was thankful that there were multiple packets in each folder, so nothing should be amiss if Lily took a copy.

Setting Dawn's folder back down where she found it, Lily turned around and proceeded to leave Lisa's office. But not before snitching a few of the soft caramels from the crystal dish on Lisa's desk; that was the main reason that Lily snuck into Lisa's office, after all. Stepping out of Lisa's office, Lily was in the hallway and, seeing that no one had seen her come out (no one had seen her enter the hallway, either), the young adult Loud woman had a good feeling that she was in the clear.

Walking back out of the hallway, Lily was met up with Lisa, Lola and Lana, the three of them talking to each other. "Oh?" Lana remarked upon noticing Lily standing there, "Ah, there you are, Lily. Where did you go off to?"

"I went to use the bathroom," Lily said, "I met Lucy right as I exited because she needed to use the bathroom, so I stepped to the side and let her in. I got distracted by that one painting that Lisa and her husband have hanging in the hallway, which is why I didn't come back right away."

"Oh, you mean that painting of a farm field with autumn trees?" Lisa asked, and after an affirmative nod from Lily, Lisa continued, "Yes. David's friend Hugo, who works with antiques, was able to get ahold of that for us. Hugo gifted it to David and me as a wedding gift." The twins proceeded to talk about the fine painting that Lisa and David has, distracting Lisa from noticing Lily, who had the barest hints of nervousness and worry on her face.

* * *

"I seriously cannot believe it," Astrid, looking and sounding very disgusted, said as she sat at the dining room table in her older brother Aggro's house. In addition to Aggro himself, his wife Leni was also there. Leni looked more or less the same as she always did; fair-skinned, long, light blonde hair, and a slim yet healthy build. There were a few changes from the Leni of twenty-one years ago, however; Leni no longer had her white-framed sunglasses on her head, and instead she wore a white-framed pair of glasses. Leni no longer wore her seafoam green dress, although the long-sleeved blouse and skirt that reached halfway down her shins still possessed a similar color scheme. Leni also wore a pair of women's sandals that are similar to the pair of sandals that she wore back in her teenage years.

"I mean, how could he do something like this?!" Astrid said angrily as she continued to fume, "I knew that he was always trying to get me to go out with him, but to go so far as to have his friends kill my boyfriend at the time?! Not to mention how he had the nerve to swoop in when I was vulnerable, like a damn predatory cat going in for the kill!"

Sighing in a resigned tone, Aggro said to his younger sister, "Astrid, you need to calm down. I understand that you're upset with what was just discovered, but getting upset is not going to do you any favors. Neither is throwing around accusations."

"Throwing around accusations?!" Astrid repeated, her tone sounding a mix of angry and confused.

"Aggro, like, has a point," Leni remarked to her sister-in-law in a sympathetic tone that carried a hint of worry, "Your husband technically hasn't been charged with anything in the ongoing case yet. In fact, from what Aggro learned on the matter, your husband's friends acted without his knowing in the matter, and that what they did is something that Chandler would never approve of." Astrid's older brother nodded once in agreement with his wife.

Leaning back in her seat, Astrid let out a long sigh that sounded a mix of resigned and angry. "He's probably just trying to cover his sorry ass, probably because he's worried that he'll get arrested, or worse, I'll want to divorce from him. It's an option that I'm strongly considering right now, as a matter of fact."

"Astrid," Aggro began in a concerned tone of warning, "You really ought to think things through before considering such a drastic move that is near impossible to take back. You should wait until every last detail is aired out and confirmed before something as big as divorce should even be considered. I mean, what would you do if you divorced from Chandler before everything was found out, and it's revealed that Chandler is actually innocent of everything?" Giving Astrid a knowing look, Aggro asked, "Would you really be able to live with yourself if you did divorce from your spouse and it turns out he had no wrongdoing at all?"

The white-haired woman let out a resigned sigh as she considered what her older brother said. Even when they were still growing up, Aggro would always be this wise fount of wisdom that Astrid was able to rely on. He was more a father-figure than a brother figure to Astrid, which was kind of a necessity because their actual father, Shigure, died in an accident back when Aggro was twelve and Astrid was six. Astrid's closest friend Ronnie Anne Loud (nee Santiago) had confided in the mixed heritage woman that she (Ronnie Anne) saw her older brother Bobby in a similar light due how their own father was literally never around for anything. And unlike when Lori uses it, in this case, the word 'literally' is being used properly.

"…I see that one of the names I have in mind for my child if it's a boy is a good choice," Astrid said to her brother and his wife as she gently patted her stomach, "I figure that if I have a son and I name him after Aggro, then that might make him turn out to be a person that's very similar to his uncle."

"Heh," Aggro chuckled in an amused manner, "I never knew you were so good at flattery, Astrid." The three people seated at the table all shared a good laugh with each other, before the conversation was shifted to a different topic.

* * *

The following morning at the Santiago residence, Lori could be seen running about as she got ready for something important. Lori was also sharply dressed, wearing a dress coat in the same color as her usual shirt and a simple dress, which reached half way down her thighs, in a color similar to her khakis. The coat was buttoned up, meaning to the untrained eye it merely looked like Lori was wearing a skirt. Additionally, Lori also wore a pair of black high heels; the outfit that the Santiago women wore gave her the look of a sharp-minded businesswoman, or a woman who was getting ready to appear in court for some reason.

...Just in case one was wondering, option 'B' is the correct choice here.

"Okay, the representative who works with your father will meet me and your cousin at the courthouse," Lori said to her twin nine-year-olds as she checked something in her business bag, "And while Dawn and I are out, I fully expect you two to behave yourselves for your Grandma Maria when she comes here to watch you two. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, mom," Ronnie Anne replied, sounding mildly annoyed that she was being told to do something she already knew she had to do. Lincoln nodded once in the affirmative in response to his mother's order. After he nodded, Lincoln, with a look of curiosity on his face, raised a hand.

"Yes, sweetie, what is it?" Lori asked when she called upon her son.

"Why are you and Dawn going to court?" Lincoln asked, "Did something bad happen?"

The Santiago woman gave a sigh before she responded. "Technically yes, but the bad thing that happened took place well before you, your sister and all of your cousins were even born. Dawn found evidence that pointed out a few named individuals that were stated to be the ones who did the bad thing, and after an investigation it was confirmed that the evidence was right. The men who did the bad thing are on trial today."

"Then why are you and Dawn going?" Ronnie Anne asked.

"Your cousin has to give some testimony, mostly to explain how she came across the evidence that she provided," Lori explained to her daughter, "I'm going along because Dawn is a minor that I'm legally responsible for."

Raising a hand again, Lincoln asked, "If Dawn is going to court with you, then why is she wearing what she usually wears while you're in a pretty outfit?" Dawn, who stood nearby, was wearing what's become her standard outfit; she was not in any fancy outfit, unlike her aunt.

After casting a quick look at her teenage niece, Lori turned back to her children and said, "Your cousin doesn't own anything that would constitute an outfit similar to what I've got on right now, and I doubt she'd want to wear one anyway because she's made it clear she likes what she wears." With a bit of a chuckle, Lori added, "By the way Lincoln, thanks for the complement."

It wasn't long after that before Maria Santiago showed up to look after her two grandchildren. The older Hispanic woman wore a blue long-sleeved blouse, a pair of pale light blue pants and a pair of white shoes, somewhat resembling what she would wear in her nursing job at the hospital before she retired. Time had been kind to Maria; she was actually a little bit thinner than she was twenty-one years ago, but she still had a healthy weight. Virtually nothing else over the past twenty-one years had changed about Maria, aside from gaining similar signs of age that Rita had.

"Are you and Dawn going to be okay?" Maria asked her daughter-in-law after the Santiago twins had settled down after welcoming their grandmother.

Nodding once in the affirmative, Lori replied, "It's no big deal, Mrs. Santiago. Dawn and I are going to be okay."

"I'm still pretty nervous about what's going to happen, though," the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl remarked, drawing both adult women's attention to her. Both Lori and Maria could see the look of worry on Dawn's face.

Walking up to her grandniece, Maria gently drew Dawn into a reassuring hug. "There's no need to worry, sweetie," the older Hispanic woman said in a reassuring tone, "Your uncle's legal help will be there, as will your aunt. They'll help you if you get nervous."

"Mmmm," Dawn hummed, still sounding a mix of nervous and worried. After all other pleasantries were exchanged, Lori escorted her niece out the door and over to the car. Both of them got in, and after Lori stuck the key in the ignition, they were off to the Royal Woods court house to do their part in the court case today.

END, CHAPTER THREE

Author's notes:

I was never intending to put the court case, or any part of it, in this chapter. This chapter would have dragged on too long if I did either option (in my opinion, at least). Besides, I figured that having any court stuff take place before chapter four would have been a bit too early. Speaking of which, I've got my work cut out for me for the next chapter. Here's hoping that I'll be able to pull things off well enough.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

The great Royal Woods inquiry

Chapter four: Court Day

Lori Santiago parked her car in the parking lot of the Royal Woods court house before shutting her car off, getting out and locking it. Turning to look at the imposing building of law, Lori took a breath before saying, "Well, this is it."

"You're telling me," Dawn Sharp, Lori's fifteen-year-old niece, remarked as she followed her aunt over to the court building. Dawn was, in fact, the reason why she and Lori were at the court building at all; Dawn wasn't in any legal trouble, mind you. Instead, she's needed to provide some testimony, mostly in relation to how she provided crucial evidence in the case that would be taking place today.

As she looked at the court building that she and her aunt approached, Dawn said, "I'm scared."

"Dawn, relax," Lori said in as much of a reassuring tone as possible, "Remember what we practiced with your Uncle Bobby's legal help. All you have to do is explain how you came across the journal, along with how and why you got it."

"Yeah, I know the topic of me going on the lookout for the truth of my parentage will come up," Dawn remarked. With a sigh of nervousness, Dawn continued, "But since I'll be expected to tell the truth in court, what will I do if I'm asked if I did find the truth about my parentage?"

Sighing in a knowing tone, Lori said, "Just do what your Uncle Bobby's legal help said. Plead the fifth." Dawn nodded once in understanding, hoping that her aunt, along with her uncle's legal help, knew what they were doing. Dawn dreaded what things would be like if she was forced to state in court that she had discovered that she was, albeit in an unorthodox and roundabout way, technically inbred.

The fifteen-year-old Sharp girl still couldn't believe that she and her aunt had to explain to Bobby's legal help why Dawn didn't want to have to say in court who she discovered was her biological parents. Dawn didn't want to ever have to say to anyone anything about that, even more so since she recently discovered what her maternal grandfather thinks about people whose origins are similar to that of her own. Dawn still feared how Grandpa Lynn would react upon hearing that she was inbred.

Still, because Uncle Bobby's legal help asked why Dawn didn't want to have to say in court who she discovered were her biological parents, Lori figured that he had to be told. Thankfully, he agreed with Dawn's being unwilling to say what she learned, and even provided a few tips on what to do if it comes up, along with swearing to never say to anyone what he had been told.

Right when Lori and Dawn reached the base of the large stone steps that went up to the court building, an older male voice called out, "Mrs. Santiago! About time you got here!" Lori and Dawn both turned to face the direction the voice came from, and as such they were met up by an older man that had to be in his early sixties. He was fair-skinned, his light brown hair was starting to go bald, he had a slimness similar to that of Bobby's mother Maria, and he was dressed as one would expect from a legal professional.

Gesturing to Dawn, the lawyer said as he faced her, "So young lady, are you ready for what you'll have to do today?"

"I feel like I'm going to explode, I'm so nervous," Dawn replied.

"Relax, Dawn," Lori said, gently laying her hand on her niece's right shoulder in a gesture of reassurance, "There's nothing to worry about. You're going to be fine."

"Your aunt is right, young lady," the lawyer remarked in a tone of agreement, "Besides which, there's no statute of limitations on murder, and I personally feel that the men on trial today will get charged. That means that it'll be thanks to you that not only will a decades-old cold case finally be solved, but that the deceased will finally get justice."

Dawn gave only a hum in response, still nervous about what she was going to have to do in court today. Lori and the lawyer both proceeded to head up the steps to the court building, with Lori escorting her teenage niece. The fifteen-year-old Sharp girl was still worried about what could happen in court, especially if the subject of her finding out who her biological parents are ends up getting brought up. Still, from what her aunt and her uncle's legal help said, Dawn had some reason to feel that they were all correct in saying that Dawn had nothing to worry about.

…She hoped.

* * *

The courtroom was already packed by the time Dawn sheepishly followed her Aunt Lori and Uncle Bobby's legal help inside, her slightly scrunched-up shoulders a clear indication that she was nervous as all hell. The fifteen-year-old Sharp girl could even hear one or two people whisper about her, although all whispers about Dawn that she heard sounded like they came from some older women who both felt sorry and concern for the 'poor nervous dear', as they said.

Eventually, Lori and Dawn sat down in the courtroom's audience section, right where the lawyer gestured to, before he himself joined them. As she nervously looked up from her lap, Dawn spotted two older men, one Caucasian and somewhat tall and slender and the other African American, short and somewhat well-fed, sitting at the plaintiff's table, while she spotted her Uncle Chandler's three friends sitting at the defendant's table, with their respective legal help. She hoped like hell none of them had seen her yet, which would probably end up being pointless, seeing as how they're bound to see her when she's up to give her testimony.

The three men are bound to see her as the reason why they're in such deep hot water right now. Dawn feared what any of them might do to her in retaliation for what she did, assuming that they are somehow able to get away with what they did a little over twenty years ago.

"All rise for the honorable Judge Anderson," the bailiff called out, making everyone in the court room stand up as the judge that would preside over the case, Judge Anderson, entered the room. An older Caucasian man with slightly tanned skin, Judge Anderson wore the standard black robe that's often associated with judges; he also wore a pair of glasses, black formal shoes, and as he walked, the bottom of his robe would occasionally come up a bit, revealing that he wore dark-colored pants under the robe. The judge wore his blonde hair, faded with age, in a short trim.

After taking his seat in the judge's chair, Judge Anderson said, "Be seated." Everyone who had stood up took the cue to sit back down. "We will now begin the case of McBride vs. Stone, O'Malley and Henderson." As one of the legal representatives for the plaintiffs, who Dawn saw were called the McBrides (maybe related to that Clyde fellow mentioned in the respective journals of Uncle Lincoln and the late Sid?), got up to say something regarding his hopes for how the case will proceed, Dawn was practically shivering with nervousness about the starting of the court case.

* * *

To Dawn's surprise, her Uncle Chandler was brought into court today. Then again, Dawn figured that this would happen, seeing as how three of his friends were on trial for something that was supposedly done as a favor for him. After Chandler sat in the witness stand, he was approached by a court clerk, who was carrying a bible. After he got up to Chandler, the court clerk held the bible out to him front side up.

"Place your hand on the bible," the court clerk instructed, and Chandler did so right away. "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" the court clerk asked while Chandler had his hand on the bible.

"I swear," Chandler replied. The court clerk nodded once in a satisfied manner before taking the bible away and going back to where he sat. After the court clerk sat back down, one of the legal representatives for the McBrides got up to approach Chandler.

"Can you please give your first and last name so that it's on record?" the lawyer asked.

Nodding once in the affirmative, Candler said, "My name's Chandler McCann."

Arching an eyebrow in mild curiosity, the lawyer asked, "How do you spell your last name?"

"M-C-C-A-N-N," Chandler replied as he spelled his last name, "It's one word and the second 'C' is capitalized."

"Alright then, Mr. McCann," the lawyer said, "Moving right along now, what was the relationship that you had with the late son of my clients, the McBrides?"

"He was a classmate of mine from elementary to high school," Chandler replied.

The lawyer nodded once, knowing what Chandler said to be true. "Do you remember where you were the night of the death of my clients' son?" the lawyer asked.

"Yes," Chandler replied, "I was at home resting. I had suffered a really bad injury to my leg, which required me to wear a cast that made going places rather difficult."

"Can medical records proving your claims be provided?" the lawyer asked. The lawyer representing Chandler said that such records could be provided, and in fact he handed a copy of said records over to the McBrides' lawyer be checked. "…Very well," the McBrides' lawyer said, satisfied with what he had seen. To Chandler, the McBrides' lawyer said, "Now, you had such an injury, yet from what's been submitted you went to your senior prom."

"My injury made things difficult for me, not impossible," Chandler pointed out, "And people only get one senior prom in their life. Who was I to miss going to my senior prom?"

"So you went to prom, despite a rather difficult injury that you were trying to heal from," the McBrides' lawyer said. Gesturing to Chandler, the McBrides' lawyer continued, "Can anyone account for your whereabouts the night of the death of my clients' son?"

"Yes, my mother can do that," Chandler replied in the affirmative. The McBrides' lawyer nodded once in understanding, apparently satisfied with Chandler's response. The rest of Chandler's time in the witness stand passed by relatively without any sort of excitement.

* * *

To Dawn's mild worry, the next person on the stand was her Uncle (slash father) Lincoln. Seeing such an important person to her on the witness stand worried the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl. After Lincoln had been sworn in, he was approached by another one of the lawyers representing the McBrides. "Can you give your first and last name so that it's on record?" the McBride's lawyer asked the white-haired man.

Nodding once in the affirmative, Lincoln said, "My name is Lincoln Loud."

The McBride's lawyer nodded once in a satisfied manner before he proceeded to ask Lincoln about what kind of relationship he had with the late Clyde, to which Lincoln answered that Clyde was his closest friend from very early childhood all the way to when Clyde met his unfortunate end. The lawyer then proceeded to ask Lincoln about his whereabouts the night of Clyde's murder. "I was with my friends Rusty, Liam and Zach at Rusty's place for our usual Friday night game session," the white-haired man explained.

"Game session?" the McBride's lawyer repeated in a mildly confused tone.

Nodding once to show that he was being honest, Lincoln explained, "My friends and I would get together every Friday night to play a tabletop RPG. We didn't play at all on the night in question as we were all waiting for Clyde to show up, given that he was our group's DM."

"What's a DM?" the McBride's lawyer asked, clearly looking lost.

"DM stands for Dungeon Master," Lincoln replied, "That's basically the person responsible for running the game."

Gently face-palming, the McBride's lawyer said after removing his hand from his face, "Did you have any idea what happened to my clients' late son?"

Gently shaking his head in the negative, Lincoln said, "I didn't find out about what happened to Clyde until the following morning, when Ronnie Anne came by with her friend Astrid, who was crying her eyes out. Ronnie Anne explained to me about what happened to Clyde and that it was why Astrid was crying so much."

The McBride's lawyer went back over to where he and the rest of the McBride's team was at. He picked up some papers and checked them as he walked back over to where Lincoln was still sitting in the witness's stand. "…Ah yes," the McBride's lawyer said, "Ronnie Anne is your wife now, isn't she?"

"Yes, she is," Lincoln replied in the affirmative, "She was my girlfriend at the time, though."

"I suppose that this means that she can verify what you said about her showing up to your family's house the morning following the death of my clients' son?" the McBride's lawyer asked. After Lincoln replied in the affirmative, the McBride's lawyer asked, "Are there any other persons who can verify your whereabouts from twelve hours before to twelve hours after the death of my clients' son?"

"My friends Rusty, Liam and Zach," Lincoln began, "Along with everyone in my immediate family at the time."

Nodding once in a satisfied manner, the McBride's lawyer said, "Very well, Mr. Loud. Thank you for your time." To Judge Anderson, the McBride's lawyer said, "I have no further questions for Mr. Loud, your honor."

* * *

The part of that day's proceedings that Dawn was dreading the most, the part where she was called upon to give testimony, finally took place. Gulping nervously when she was called, the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl got up and, doing as she was told, made her way over to the witness stand. She was sworn in by the court clerk before the first lawyer from the McBride's team came up to her. "Can you please give your first and last name so that it's on record?" the McBride's lawyer asked.

"D-Dawn Sharp," Dawn stammered out after giving a few nods in the affirmative.

"Miss Sharp," the McBride's lawyer began, "It has been brought to attention that you were the one who came across the journal kept by the late Sid Hofferson, in which Sid confessed in his writings about what he, along with misters Stone, O'Malley and Henderson, did the night in question. Is this true?"

Dawn gave a somewhat stammered response in the affirmative, clearly frightened by what was going on right now. "Can you please explain how it was that you came across the late Sid Hofferson's journal?" the McBride's lawyer asked.

Slowly nodding a few times in the affirmative before she spoke, the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl explained, "I came across it when I was at the estate sale my Aunt Lori brought me to. I saw it randomly on a small bookshelf that was built into an old fancy desk. When I picked it up and saw that it mentioned a number of my aunts and uncles by name when I opened it, I thought that it would have given me some insight to what they were like back when the journal was being written in, which is why I bought it along with the Playtendo 69 I found."

"But you got more than you were expecting," the McBride's lawyer replied, a hint of knowingness in his tone, "Didn't you?"

Replying in the affirmative, Dawn said with a hint of somberness in her tone, "When I came across the part where the guy talked about the murder that he took part in, I freaked out and called for my Aunt Lori."

"Did you show your aunt the part in the journal that made you freak out?" the McBride's lawyer asked.

"Yes," Dawn replied as she gave a brief affirmative nod, "Shortly afterwards, we brought what I found to the attention of those nice officer guys over at the Royal Woods Police Department building." With a nervous gulp, the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl added, "That was the last I heard or seen of that journal until today."

"I see," the McBrides' lawyer replied, nodding slowly a few times as he processed what Dawn had said. Turning to face the judge, the McBrides' lawyer said, "I have no further questions for Miss Sharp, your honor." As Judge Anderson acknowledged the lawyer's wishes and proceeded to excuse Dawn, she was mildly surprised.

That was it? Dawn wasn't put on the spot where she would have to reveal the truth of her parentage? The subject wasn't even brought up? The fifteen-year-old Sharp girl couldn't believe the incredible stroke of luck that she just got. Feeling as if a truly encumbering weight had just been lifted from her person, Dawn proceeded to get up from where she sat in the witness stand, eager to go join her Aunt Lori as soon as possible.

However, just before Dawn could get up, one of the lawyers for Chandler's friends got up from where he and his fellows sat with their clients. This man looked like what one would expect to see when they're told 'stereotypical evil lawyer'; he was a fair-skinned man who looked to be in his fifties at least, he had thinning black hair that was partly bald on the top of his head, he was rather slim, and he looked rather weasel-like for a human being.

"Your honor," the lawyer began, sounding rather sure of himself as he got up from where he was sitting, "I have a few questions for Miss Sharp before she leaves the witness stand." Inside her head, Dawn felt as if she could hear multiple warning noises go off. To make matters even worse for Dawn, Judge Anderson allowed the lawyer to do his questioning.

"Miss Sharp," the lawyer began as he spoke to Dawn, "You bought the journal that belonged to the late Sid Hofferson while you were at the estate sale being held by Mr. Hofferson's surviving relatives, didn't you?" Unsure of where this was going, Dawn nonetheless answered in the affirmative, as she was still under oath. "And you saw that it was a personal journal before you bought it, didn't you?" the lawyer continued.

"I saw that when I opened it and read a passage that mentioned some of my uncles and my Aunt Astrid by name," the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl replied, answering in the affirmative.

"Ah, now let me ask you this," the lawyer began, "If you knew that it was a personal journal belonging to their deceased relative, why didn't you bring it to their attention? I mean, surely Mr. Hofferson's sister and two nephews would have appreciated having something related to their deceased relative as personal and important as a journal."

Getting a little nervous, Dawn said, "Well, I figured that since they were selling it at the estate sale, they probably didn't care enough to keep it."

"Do you believe that they knew what it was?" the lawyer asked as he continued to put pressure on Dawn, "I mean, if they knew that it was a journal kept by their late relative, then they would never have sold it at the estate sale. As it's a hand-written journal, it would have had significant sentimental value to the surviving family, and as such, it should have been brought to their attention. But no." Giving Dawn a serious look, the lawyer continued, "Instead of bringing it to their attention, you decided to keep the truth of what it was to yourself, passing it off as just one of the other books being sold so that you can take away something precious to Mr. Hofferson's surviving family, endangering the freedom of three men in the process."

"Objection, your honor!" the first lawyer for the McBrides cut in. Explaining himself, the McBrides' lawyer said as he held up a printed sheet of paper, "This is a statement from the late Sid Hofferson's sister, in which she states that she knew that her late brother's journal was among his possessions being sold at the estate sale, and that she didn't care enough to keep it."

At the judge's request, the McBrides' lawyer brought him the statement from Sid's sister. Giving it a quick look, Judge Anderson handed it back so that it could be returned to where evidence was being kept. "Defense, you're acting out of line," Judge Anderson declared, "Cease this line of questioning towards Miss Sharp."

With a quick sigh that carried the barest hint of annoyance, a hint that wasn't detected by anyone, the lawyer for Chandler's friends said in a tone that carried a hint of knowing defeat, "Yes, your honor." The lawyer backed off, and without any further interruptions, Dawn was free to be relieved from the witness stand. As such, the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl made a beeline for her Aunt Lori.

* * *

The rest of the court case that day went by about as close to what everyone would expect; each of Chandler's friends took turns on the stand, were sworn in, and gave their accounts of what happened. With all the evidence against them, neither Frank, Richie nor Trent dared to try and lie about anything; after all, they were put under oath before they were questioned in court. With what they were possibly looking at, none of the three men wanted to risk getting a perjury charge thrown in with everything else.

After all was said and done, and after all of the evidence that was gathered was examined and considered, Chandler's friends were all found guilty of and charged with first degree murder. It was decided that a separate case would be held to determine what punishment the three men would receive, but a lot of people believed that life sentences for all three of them is the most likely scenario. As everyone filed out of the court building for the day, Lori explained to Dawn that a life sentence meant that the three men would be stuck in prison for the rest of their lives. This relieved Dawn considerably, as she feared that at least one of those three men might have tried to come after her out of revenge.

"…So…that's it," Dawn said aloud as she looked out the passenger side window as she and her Aunt Lori returned home, her tone sounding without any discernable emotion, "Uncle Chandler's friends are done for at this point."

Having heard her niece speak, Lori gave her a partial glace. "…Yes," the Santiago woman replied, "Your Uncle Chandler's friends, or rather I should say former friends after what I heard your Uncle Chandler say as everyone left court, are done for."

"You don't think that Uncle Chandler is upset with me," Dawn began, her tone carrying the barest hint of worry, "Do you, Aunt Lori?"

Sighing in a resigned tone, Lori explained, "Dawn, your Uncle Chandler is not upset with you. In fact, when I spoke with him while you went to use the bathroom after everyone got out of the court room, he said that he knew you were taking a very huge risk in doing what you did. He also asked me to let you know that both he and your Aunt Astrid are proud of you."

"Oh, that reminds me," the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl began as she turned her head slightly to better face her aunt, "Are things cooling down between Uncle Chandler and Aunt Astrid?"

"Your Aunt Astrid is still a little upset with what happened, with what she found out about what happened to Clyde back when they were still in High School," Lori began. With a knowing sigh, Lori continued, "However, with what was happening in court today, your Aunt Astrid realized that your Uncle Chandler had nothing to do with what his former friends did so long ago. In fact, if things had gone by without what your Uncle Chandler's former friends did, then you most likely wouldn't even have Chandler as your uncle, because from what I saw all that time ago, Clyde would most likely ended up with your Aunt Astrid instead."

"Do…" Dawn began as she turned to look out the window again, "…Do you remember what this Clyde fellow was like?"

With a bit of a chuckle, Lori said, "Yeah, I'm familiar with Clyde. He was basically a copy of your father, with the only real difference the two of them being that Clyde was African American. Clyde and your father were best friends growing up, having been thick as thieves ever since Kindergarten. Clyde also had a bit of a crush on me, but that wore off when your father and your Aunt Ronnie Anne managed to get him and your Aunt Astrid to meet up with each other."

"Mmm hmm," Dawn hummed, her tone still subdued by how emotionally drained she was. Lori was able to pick up on this and, knowing full well that today would have been a completely emotionally draining day for her teenage niece regardless, knew that Dawn just needed time to recuperate. The Santiago woman respected this, and figured that Dawn would just play some of her video games alone in her room to relax. Lori knew that she would have to instruct her kids to give their older cousin some space; the Santiago woman figured that her children trying to pester Dawn would be the only thing that might pop up to distract Dawn from trying to relax.

…So as one could imagine, when Lori's car turned the corner in the residential area where she and her family lived, only to see a brightly colored tour bus parked right outside of her family's house, Lori knew that the rest of Dawn's day would be anything _but_ relaxing. "You…you cannot be serious," Lori muttered to herself, her tone of subdued shock clearly conveying the Santiago woman's complete disbelief.

"Hmm?" Dawn remarked in a curious tone as she turned to face her aunt, "What's going on, Aunt Lo-" Dawn stopped short as she, while looking out the front window, saw what had caught her Aunt Lori's attention. The fifteen-year-old Sharp girl's eyes went about as wide her aunt's when she saw that tour bus.

"…About time," Dawn muttered to herself, both her tone and narrowing eyes conveying the idea that Dawn was about to find out something she's been wanting to know for quite some time.

END, CHAPTER FOUR

Author's notes:

I had to look up possible sentences for various degrees of murder to figure out which would be the hardest one without going overboard, as although what Chandler's (now former) friends did was pretty harsh, it just wouldn't do to just slap them with a death sentence. I figured that life in prison would be harsh enough. I'm not entirely sure if what happened to Clyde would count as first degree, though.

Anyway, for those of you who were a bit annoyed about the lack of Luna and Sam outside of flashback scenes in 'WSEUL', well it should be obvious that such concerns will be laid to rest in the next chapter. Dawn in particular will be wanting to go over a few things with her moms, especially in regards to Luna.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

The great Royal Woods inquiry

Chapter five: A reckoning that's been a long time coming

Dawn Sharp couldn't believe what she seeing as her Aunt Lori's car was pulling up to the Santiago residence. A brightly colored tour bus, belonging to the musical group that Dawn's mothers Luna and Sam belonged to, was parked right outside of the house where Lori and her husband Bobby were raising their twin children, along with the Sharp women's own daughter. And naturally, as one would expect when something like a tour bus belonging to highly successful and very famous musicians was sitting in a residential area, people were flocking for the chance to see famous people.

…This relates to the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl liking the fact that she was socially invisible.

"…Huh, well how about that, sweetie," Lori said to Dawn, although the Santiago woman looked straight ahead at the tour bus and not to her niece as she spoke while they both got out of Lori's car after it was parked, "It looks like your moms have come by to see how you were doing."

"I haven't spoken to them since before I found out the truth," Dawn remarked, getting steadily worried, "Do they know that I found out?"

Sighing, Lori replied, "Unless your father or any of your aunts or uncles who are in the know informed them, then no." With a gentle shake of her head, Lori added, "Neither I or your Uncle Bobby told them."

"Do you think that they'll both freak when I tell them about what I learned?" Dawn asked. With a nervous glance at her moms' tour bus, the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl continued, "After all, this isn't something simple. It's me telling them that I found out that I'm inbred."

With a shrug, Lori said, "Well, there's only one way to find out, Dawn. Come on, we ought to go find your cousins and your Grandaunt Maria." With a gentle shake of her head, the Santiago woman added, "No offence, but your moms are a little too…_energetic_…to be left alone with your cousins and grandaunt for very long."

"They're a little too energetic to be left alone with _me_ for very long," Dawn retorted, understanding full well that there was no way she'd be comfortable living a lifestyle similar to that of her two moms. Lori led her niece to the front door of the house, figuring that it would be the most likely place to find her sister and sister-in-law since not only would Maria most likely not be interested in going into the tour bus, but she'd probably insist that the twins not go in there unless at least one of their parents were present.

The Santiago woman's instincts were good, because as soon as she opened the front door, Lori and Dawn saw Maria and the Santiago twins entertaining Luna and Sam. Both Sharp women were dressed casually, in styles reminiscent of what they wore in their mid to late teens, albeit with a few changes here and there; Luna wore a loose-fitting t-shirt and pair of jeans held up with a belt, although this new outfit still had the same general color scheme. Sam's jacket was a sleeveless variation of the one she wore in her teens, and her jeans were now looser fitting, also held up with a belt just like Luna's. Again, the outfit had the same general color scheme as its counterpart from twenty-one years ago.

"_It'll never cease to amaze me,_" Lori thought as she and Dawn saw Luna and Sam, "_No matter how much time passes, Luna is still the same as always._" Speaking out loud, Lori said, "Well isn't this a surprise! I take it you two are here to see your daughter?" The instant the front door opened, everyone in the living room turned to see who was coming in; upon seeing it was Lori and Dawn, both Luna and Sam stood up to greet them. However, both Sharp women were cut off from approaching Lori and Dawn when the Santiago twins, mostly Ronnie Anne dragging her brother along with her, got up and ran up to their mother.

"Mom! Mom! Aunt Luna and Aunt Sam are here!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed excitedly, "They came in their super bus and everything!"

Chuckling a bit in a mildly amused manner that showed she understood her daughter's excitement, Lori said, "Yes, yes, I can see that, Ronnie Anne. But I think that your aunts looked like they wanted to say something before you and your brother cut in." Looking up from her daughter and over to where Luna and Sam stood, Lori asked, "Isn't that right?"

"It's been a while, dude," Sam remarked to her sister-in-law, "Plus Luna and I haven't spoken with Dawn-star in a while, so we're wanting to catch up with her."

The fifteen-year-old Sharp girl took a breath to steady her nerves before she finally spoke. "…Would it be okay if Aunt Maria took the twins to go check out your tour bus?" Dawn asked her two moms. Her expression and tone taking on a hint of seriousness, Dawn continued, "There's something that I need to talk to you two about, and I'd rather that Lincoln and Ronnie Anne not be around when it's discussed."

Both Sharp women were surprised by their teenage daughter's request; it was clear on both of their faces. "Why do you ask?" Sam replied, a bare hint of concern in her tone, "Is something the matter, sweetie?"

"I know what this is about," Lori remarked, speaking in a mildly worried 'oh boy' kind of tone. To her sister and sister-in-law, Lori said, "Yeah, I think it's best that the twins aren't exposed to the kind of stuff we're going to talk about. Would you be okay if Bobby's mom took the kids to go check out the tour bus?"

Giving a thumbs-up gesture, Sam replied, "No prob, Lori. Luna and I got all of our not-for-children stuff locked in a trunk in the tour bus bedroom, so there's no risk of the twins getting into stuff they shouldn't be getting into."

Turning to face her mother-in-law, Lori said, "You don't mind keeping an eye on Lincoln and Ronnie Anne, do you?"

"I'd be lying if I didn't admit to wanting to check out the tour bus a bit myself," Maria replied as she got up from where she was sitting, "Don't worry, Lori. You can count on me." After a few moments, Maria escorted her grandchildren out to the tour bus. After the front door closed, Lori and Dawn turned to face Dawn's two moms.

Holding her arms out at length, sort of as if she was a scarecrow on a rod in a cornfield, Sam said to her daughter, "Well, we got the place to ourselves, Dawn. Now what is it that you wanted to talk to me and your mom about?"

"I found out that not only is she the mom who gave birth to me rather than you," Dawn said to Sam while pointing to Luna, "But that Uncle Lincoln is my biological father."

"WHAT?!" both Luna and Sam exclaimed in unison. Both Sharp women were very clearly shocked by what their daughter told them.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Dawn continued with a firm look and a serious tone, "Don't even try to lie to me. I got the results from Aunt Lisa's and Uncle David's lab, and Aunt Lori told me that the results didn't lie." After saying that bit, the expression on the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl's face morphed from one of seriousness to one of somber resignation. "…When?" Dawn asked, looking like she might start crying at any moment, "When were you two going to tell me the truth? When were you going to tell me that I'm…I'm…"

As tears slowly started to run down the sides of Dawn's face, she was surprised when Luna came up to her and wrapped her arms around her, drawing Dawn into a gentle hug. "…That's not a thing that any parent could easily say to their child in such a situation, Dawn," Luna began, her gentle tone showing that she was not disappointed or upset that Dawn found out the truth, "How could your mom and I explain to you something as big of a revelation that you're technically the result of inbreeding?"

"…You could have just explained the part about those two incompetent men working at the fertility clinic," Dawn mumbled more than said, although she spoke clearly enough for both of her two moms to hear her.

"Oh, that reminds me," Luna said suddenly. To Lori, Luna asked, "Sam and I found out as we came into Royal Woods earlier that those two bozos were fired from their positions at the fertility clinic."

"Really?" Lori asked, sounding like she just heard something very good, "Well it's about damn time that they got what they had coming."

"Yeah," Sam said as she knew what Luna was talking about, "Apparently, when a patient came in for a treatment at the fertility clinic in order to get pregnant, those two idiots were the doctors that got assigned to her. Long story short, when they were treating the woman, the two idiots messed up in a way that actually resulted in the woman's accidental death. It was noted in the accompanying news story about the woman's death that both men were under the influence at the time of their negligence." With a chuckle that sounded amused, Sam said, "There's no way they'll be able to work around something like _that_."

"It's a shame that it took those two idiots accidentally killing someone for the fertility clinic to finally get its crap together and can those two idiot men," Lori remarked with a resigned sigh. To Sam and Luna, Lori continued, "But I'm glad that something's finally been done to punish those idiots, especially given what they've been allowed to get away with since their blunder in regards to you two."

Nodding to Lori's point, Luna said, "True, true. But then again…" Gesturing to her and Sam's teenage daughter, Luna continued, "Sam and I got a pretty awesome kid out of it when all was said and done. An awesome kid who, from what Sam and I heard about when we entered Royal Woods earlier today, was key in solving the cold case around Lincoln's old friend Clyde, finally bringing him some justice."

"Oh yeah!" the Santiago woman replied, "Thanks for reminding me, Luna. There's no forgetting what Dawn did in regards to bringing a group of murderers to justice and bringing closure to the McBride family after all this time since our brother's friend was killed."

"I bet that it must have been a rather frightening experience for you," Luna said to Dawn when she turned to face her, "Having to appear in court like that to give testimony. I'm sorry that your mom and I weren't there to support you."

With a gentle shake of her head, Dawn replied, "I did well enough, all things considered. Besides, mom, if you and mom were there, then your presence would have been a bit on the distracting side, given that the both of you are famous musicians."

Jerking a thumb at her and Luna's daughter, Sam said after turning her head to face Luna, "She's got a point, babe. We would have stolen the show just by being there."

"Heh," Luna remarked with a knowing, amused chuckle, "You got me there. Although I know I speak for both of us when I say that we would have wanted to be there anyway, given what Dawn was having to step up to do. We're her moms, after all."

Sam nodded in agreement, knowing full well how her wife was feeling. "Yeah, well enough about all that depressing court stuff," Sam said, "Come on. It's been a long time since we've seen Dawn-star here. I think that now would be a good time for the lot of us to catch up with one another, don't you think?"

"Yeah, totally," Luna agreed. Turning to face Dawn, Luna continued, "In fact, I'd like to see what kind of a room you sleep in. I bet it's pretty rocking, just like your mom and mine's tour bus outside."

To the surprise of the Sharp women and their daughter, Lori let out a bit of laughter. "Hoo boy," the Santiago woman said as her laughter simmered down. To her younger sister, Lori remarked, "Luna, I think that it's about time that you and Sam are introduced to your daughter Dawn."

* * *

A short while later, Luna and Sam were looking into their teenage daughter's room that she had at the Santiago residence. Not one thing the Sharp women saw held any sign that Dawn was into rock music like themselves; there were a few posters related to various animes, both older and current, on the walls, some plushies of anime characters could be seen on the top of a bookshelf that held various manga graphic novels and a few video game cases, and there was a TV on top of a long dresser and with the TV were various video game consoles. There were a few other bits here and there, but the main point is that Dawn is far from being just like her two moms.

"…It like what your brother would have been like if he were a teenage girl," Sam remarked in something of a whisper to Luna, who merely nodded in agreement.

"So yeah, moms," Dawn remarked as she, Luna and Sam walked into the teenage girl's bedroom, "This is where I sleep. Sorry if I'm not like what you were expecting."

"Nah, it's okay, Dawn-star," Sam replied in an understanding tone.

"Your mom's right, Dawn," Luna said. With a bit of an amused smile, Luna continued as she gestured around Dawn's bedroom, "In fact, this is actually something that I should have seen coming, considering who your father is and all."

Walking towards her bed, Dawn turned slightly before sitting down on her bed so that she was still facing Luna and Sam. "So…" the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl began, her tone showing mild curiosity, "…How long are you two going to be in town?"

"For a week, at least," Luna explained, "The band that your mom and I belong to have a few concerts to perform at here in Royal Woods. Given the time that we'll be here for, I think it'd be safe to say that we'll have plenty of chances to do the whole family deal."

"Uhh, babe," Sam began, a hint of mild worry in her tone, "We're trying to keep the fact that the two of us have a kid on the low and low, remember?"

Smacking herself a bit in the forehead, Luna said, "D'oh! I can't believe that slipped my mind!" To Dawn, Luna said, "Yeah, family outings while your mom and I are in town may be a bit hard to come by, given how your mom and I don't want to see you get plastered all over the media by the paparazzi. It's bad enough that your mom and I have to deal with it, as well as your Uncle Ulfric to a lesser extent due to him being on a professional football team and all. But a kid like you?" With a gentle shake of her head, Luna remarked, "Yeah, you would get eaten alive out there, sweetie. Umm, no offence."

"None taken," Dawn replied in an understanding tone, not the barest hint of being offended to be found, "I actually prefer being socially invisible. It'd be a nightmare if the other students at my high school found out who my moms were. Hell, a lot of the jocks on the football team would scope me out as someone to date if they found out about Uncle Ulfric."

Nodding once in agreement, Sam said, "You got a point. I guess the burden of fame has more pressure on the relatives of those who have said burden, as opposed to those who actually have said burden them-" Sam was cut off when she, Luna and Dawn all heard some knocking coming from the front door all the way out in the living room. After a few moments, the sounds of many people clamoring for a scoop could be heard alongside Lori's shouting trying to get the story chasers to back off.

"…I was wondering when they'd start to show up," Luna remarked, her eyes wincing in a manner that conveyed some degree of suspicion. Sam nodded in agreement with her wife. To Dawn, Luna said, "Sweetie, I think that you better refrain from going past windows that aren't closed and don't have the blinds pulled over, at least until the paparazzi leave."

"You and mom don't have to tell me twice," the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl replied, her tone making it clear that she'd prefer it if the paparazzi weren't even aware of the fact that she even existed in the first place.

Turning to face Sam, Luna said, "Well babe, I think that we ought to go see how badly my sister is dealing with trying to drive the story chasers off." Sam nodded a few times in agreement as she followed Luna out of Dawn's bedroom, prepared for the worst case scenario. The two Sharp women closed the door behind them, leaving their teenage daughter be.

Dawn couldn't say that she envied her two moms.

* * *

Eventually, the hoard of paparazzi was eventually driven away, but a few of them still lingered onwards, having taken to staking out in the hopes of snapping another photo of the two famous women who were in the residential area of Royal Woods. This is making it rather difficult for any of the residents living at Lori's place to go in and out, as anyone living under that roof would undoubtedly be harassed by shutterbugs and tabloid reporters hoping for even the smallest scrap to feed to the all-consuming public.

It wasn't just Dawn that the Sharp women and Lori were worried about; there was also the Santiago twins, Lincoln and Ronnie Anne, neither of which have even reached an age with more than one digit. The kids would not do very well when pressured by paparazzi. Not to mention Lori's husband Bobby, who isn't as aggressive in dealing with the members of the tabloids as his wife or either of the Sharp women.

Bobby's lack of aggression in this regard was made clear when he pulled up to the house and parked his car; before he even got out, the Santiago man was beset by no less than four random paparazzi and two members of the tabloids, all of which were snapping photos and shouting random questions to the confused Hispanic man. Lori, who heard the shouting from inside the house, went outside to see what was going on, and promptly had to chase away the people she caught harassing her husband.

"The heck's going on out there, Lori?!" Bobby exclaimed in a mix of confusion and mild panic, "I was almost eaten alive out there, practically!" The Hispanic man looked more or less the same as he did in his late teens; the only differences was that he now wore a blue version of the green shirt he had, his shirt underneath that was now a pale light brown color, he had a very faint trace of five-o-clock shadow, and his black hair now reached the base of his neck.

"My sister Luna and her wife Sam are in town for some concerts," Lori explained, "They'll be in Royal Woods for at least a week." Gesturing to the front door, the Santiago woman continued, "And as you should have seen, Luna and Sam decided to swing by to see how Dawn is doing. There was also a bit of an issue with getting the twins and your mother inside, as they were checking out the tour bus when the paparazzi swarm came."

Nodding once as he calmed down a bit, Bobby said, "Oh yeah, Dawn's moms." With a sudden look of realization on his face, the Santiago man asked, "Wait a minute, do they know about what Dawn found out six months ago?"

Nodding once in the affirmative, Lori replied with a mild hint of somberness, "Yes, Boo-Boo Bear. In fact, Dawn took the time to inform Luna and Sam about what she learned, as well as ask them why she had been kept in the dark for so much of her life."

Sighing, the Santiago man asked, "It's a pretty big bombshell to drop on someone like that. Most of all our teenage niece. She's too good a kid to be thrown through the wringer like that."

"No need to tell me twice," Lori replied to her husband, "At least she's gotten used to knowing what she knows now." With a bit of an amused smirk on her face, Lori continued, "In fact, I think that our niece has kind of embraced the knowledge of her parentage in a way. I've seen her use the name Sinborn as a name for many of the characters she uses in all of the video games that she plays."

With a curious look on his face, Bobby remarked, "Aggro tells me that's the word that his twin uses when referring to someone who is like Dawn."

"Oh, speaking of Allison," Lori began, "Apparently, she was somehow able to guess the truth about Dawn just by getting a quick glance at her. I had to convince her that she must have just been seeing things. Thankfully, I was able to convince her." With a sigh, Lori added, "I really don't like having to lie to Allison like that."

Nodding once in a mildly somber manner, Bobby said, "It's not an easy thing to do, babe. But then again, what we're trying to keep on the low and low is not something that we can easily explain to people." Lori nodded in agreement with Bobby, realizing his point and being just a little glad that he was sympathizing with her, reassuring her that although what she was doing was not something she was entirely comfortable with, it was still the right thing to do.

"Anyway, I've been meaning to ask," Bobby began, "Are your sister and her wife going to keep that tour bus parked outside the house, or will they move it to somewhere so that our house won't be swarmed by people looking for pictures or a scoop?"

With a bit of a chuckle, Lori said, "As far as I know, Luna and Sam haven't even decided yet where they'll be staying while-" Lori was cut off when her phone went off, catching her attention. Reaching into her pocket, Lori fished her phone out, the caller ID telling her that it was her younger sister Lynn who was calling her. "…Huh," Lori remarked in a curious tone, "It's not like Lynn to call me out of the blue." Touching the phone's screen to accept the call, Lori held the phone to her head before saying, "Hey, Lynn. What's up?"

Bobby watched as his wife listened to the other end; as such, when he saw Lori's face suddenly shift to an expression of pure alarm and worry, right before Lori exclaimed "WHAT?!", Bobby knew that something bad had just gone down. "How did he even find out?!" Lori continued as she spoke to her sister on the phone, drawing more and more worry out of Bobby. After a few moments, Lori said, "Alright. I'll meet up with you and the others in a few minutes." After that, Lori ended the call and slipped the phone back into her pocket.

"Umm, babe…" Bobby began, his tone clearly apprehensive, "…What did your sister call in to talk to you about?"

Sighing in a resigned tone, Lori said, "Apparently, my dad found out about Dawn being inbred."

"What?!" the Santiago man exclaimed, "How did he find out about that?"

"From what Lynn was able to pick up on the matter," Lori began to explain, "One of our four sisters who shouldn't have known found out and decided to tell our dad. Furthermore, Lynn, Lincoln and our sisters who were in on it have thus far failed to find out which sister it was that learned the truth about Dawn, as only our dad knows and he refuses to say anything that would pit the vast majority of us against one of our sisters." Shaking her head in a mildly resigned manner, the Santiago woman added, "Also, Lynn told me that our dad wants all eleven of us to come to the old family house. Apparently, he wants to know everything concerning how we've been keeping the truth about Dawn's parentage from him all this time."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Bobby remarked in his continuing worried tone, "It doesn't sound like your dad is going to be very nice on this one."

"Yeah, no kidding," Lori replied, "Lynn said that our dad had specifically referred to Dawn as a freak against nature!" Bobby was shocked to hear what his wife had just said, and was further shocked to see that tears were now starting to fall down the sides of her face. "…My dad…" Lori said as she struggled very hard not to cry, "…He thinks that Dawn is an abomination. One of his own granddaughters…"

Acting on pure instinct, Bobby walked up to Lori and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her into a hug. "…We'll be dealing with this as we move along, babe," Bobby said in a reassuring yet firm tone, "We won't let any hateful S.O.B cause us grief just because he doesn't agree that our niece should be allowed to exist, even if the hateful S.O.B in question just so happens to be your dad." Although it took her a few moments, but Lori eventually got her focus back together. She realized that she kind of had to anyway.

There was a family meeting she had to go to, after all.

END, CHAPTER FIVE

Author's notes:

Well there you have it. Dawn finally met up with Luna and Sam after so much time of not seeing them, she informed them of what she learned, she reconciled, and things were starting to look up for the Sharp family. …But then the Loud siblings' dad found out the truth about Dawn, got very pissed, and called for a family meeting, mostly so he could (angrily) demand to know why he was kept in the dark about everything.

The next chapter will see everything come to call, as well as show how things will proceed in the story's setting from this point moving forward. It'll be an emotionally packed chapter; that much is for certain. Here's hoping that I can make it work.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own 'The Loud House' or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

The great Royal Woods inquiry

Chapter six: So what happens now?

Dawn was thirty percent worried and seventy percent confused when her Aunt Lori suddenly told her that she (Lori) and Luna had to go to the old Loud family residence for a family meeting, saying something about how all of their (Lori's and Luna's) siblings had to go back to their old home to meet with Grandma Rita and Grandpa Lynn about something rather important.

As such, Dawn would be left in charge of looking after her various younger cousins; not only did this include her nine-year-old cousins Lincoln and Ronnie Anne Santiago, but it also included seven-year-old Asagi Ace (daughter of Aggro and Leni), five-year-old Lynn (son of Benny and Luan), and six-year-old Haldor (son of Ulfric and Lynn Jr.). The twin one-year-old children of Lincoln and Ronnie Anne Loud, being named Bobby and Lori, were being looked after by Dawn's grandaunt Maria, as the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl didn't have a whole lot of experience when it came to handling babies.

"Hey, Aunt Maria," Dawn began, getting the older Hispanic woman's attention after she (Maria) had just gotten the baby twins to settle down for a nap, "What do you think my mom, Aunt Lori and all of their siblings had to go see Grandma Rita and Grandpa Lynn for?"

With a confused shrug, Maria said, "I have no clue, sweetie. However, given the expression that your Aunt Lori had, I'd say that it must be something rather upsetting."

"Upsetting?" the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl replied, sounding slightly more worried than she had previously, "Upsetting how?"

Gently shaking her head, Maria explained, "It was clearly a mix of sadness and anger, with a dash of heartbreak." With an expression of consideration, the older Hispanic woman continued, "If I were a gambling woman, which some in our extended family might claim as true after that one incident I had at that casino that one time, then I'd bet that one of your grandparents had just passed away, and the remaining grandparent wanted to discuss things with your mom, your Aunt Lori and all of their siblings about how to best go about breaking the news to everyone else."

Her expression instantly showing that she was alarmed, Dawn said, "You think that one of my grandparents just died?!"

"Easy, easy," Maria replied, trying to get her panicking grandniece to calm down, "Sorry about getting you worked up without any reason." With her shoulders slumping somewhat in a manner to suggest that she was embarrassed about the mess-up that she had just made, the older Hispanic woman continued, "I guess that was going a bit out of line."

With a somber look on her face, Dawn replied as she looked somewhat to the floor, "No, there's no reason to apologize. Given what's happening, that was a logical conclusion to assume." Looking back up to face her grandaunt, the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl continued, "But still, it's a bit unsettling to not know what's going on when something very big is clearly happening. I just wish that I knew what-"

Dawn found herself cut off when she and Maria both heard the front door open, prompting both of them to turn and see a mildly somber looking Bobby and a very clearly upset Lori walk into the house. Seeing his various nieces and nephews clamoring around him and Lori, Bobby said in a somewhat quite tone of subdued somberness, "Your respective moms will all be in shortly to pick you all up."

The various little kids, all failing to pick up on their Uncle Bobby's feelings, all promptly ran outside, shouting excitedly since their moms were all back. Even little Ronnie Anne ran outside, as she was excited as she never sees so many of her aunts in one place outside of holidays. Ronnie Anne was especially wanting to show her Aunt Ronnie Anne how big she had gotten. Only little Ronnie's twin brother Lincoln stayed back, although that was partly because he was actually able to pick up on the fact that something was amiss.

"…Dad?" the young Santiago boy remarked as he looked up at his parents, clearly sounding concerned, "…Are you and mom okay?"

As Bobby just stood there while Lori began to cry softly to herself, Dawn's moms Luna and Sam walked in. Both Sharp women looked troubled, Luna especially. Dawn was even more concerned when Luna, who was softly crying in a manner similar to Lori ,walked up to Dawn and gently drew her into a hug, a hug that told Dawn that there were people who loved and cared about her, and that nothing was going to be changing that. Not now, not ever.

"…Mom?" Dawn asked, sounding mildly worried, "Did something bad happen?" After the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl asked her question, her Loud-born mom began crying just a bit louder, if only by virtue of more effort being put into vocals (famous musicians, remember?). Upon hearing her mom Luna's increased volume in her crying, Dawn became more worried than she was before the adults had all gotten back from the big family meeting at the old Loud residence.

* * *

To Dawn's alarm and worry, she was told by her Aunt Lori that, somehow, Grandpa Lynn had found out about the truth of her (Dawn's) parentage. Dawn was also told that one of her four aunts that wasn't in the know found out and told Grandpa Lynn, but as of this moment nobody in the whole of the extended family knew who that aunt was; only Grandpa Lynn knew, and he was refusing to say anything on the matter.

…But then again, since ALL of the original eleven Loud children, now adults, were at that family meeting, all of them now knew the truth of Dawn's parentage, which makes finding out who it was that told Grandpa Lynn all the more difficult. It took the older sisters, specifically Lori who had taken the role of explaining everything, time to explain everything to their parents and sisters who weren't originally in the know.

This included how it was done at a fertilization clinic, how a 'manly donation' from Lincoln was used as opposed to Lincoln actually doing the nasty with one of his sisters, and how it was actually Sam who was supposed to get the 'manly donation' but a massive screw-up and a few other various elements made it so that Luna got it instead. Lori also stressed how, despite the truth of what Dawn's parentage was, nothing has really changed; the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl was still the same person that she was before.

…Naturally, all of it fell on deaf ears when it reached Lynn Sr.

First off, the older Loud patriarch announced that Dawn would be barred from ever stepping foot into any of his various restaurants ever again. This included the lion's share of restaurants in Royal Woods, some of which once being some of the old fusion places before they had to shut down due to not being able to keep up with competition from Lynn Sr.'s places. Those old fusion places were bought up in smart business moves by Lynn Sr., who remodeled all of them into various franchises of his original restaurant, although when he ended up buying up 'Bangers and Mosh' when it also had to shut down due to being unable to keep up with business, the older Loud man left it as is for nostalgia reasons.

Second off, Lynn Sr. said that he was going to write everyone who was in on the 'conspiracy', as he called it, out of his will; this meant Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan, Lynn Jr., Lincoln, Lisa, and their respective families. Some of the siblings were silenced by the announcement that their father was essentially disowning them for the 'heinous crime' as he put it, too emotionally down to mount any sort of comeback. Some of the other siblings, with Lori and Luna being prime examples, voiced outrage over what their dad was doing out of what was clearly spiteful, irrational hate.

Lori and Luna weren't the only ones to vocally object to what the older Loud patriarch was doing, either; Lucy, Lola, Lana and Lily, all of which looked to have some degree of looking disturbed by what their dad was doing, also voiced some degree of concern. Rita was also voicing concern over what her husband was doing; granted, it would be a lie to say that Rita wasn't on some level rattled to find out the truth about Dawn, but that doesn't change at all how the older Loud woman cared about her oldest grandchild. At the very least, the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl still had one grandparent that she can count on to have in her corner.

And this was just what happened when the original eleven Loud children met with their parents; after the meeting of the original main Loud family, some of the older Loud sisters, particularly Lori and Luna, decided to round up all of their siblings in order to grill everyone on what had happened, hoping to find out which among them it was that had found out the truth of Dawn's parentage and handed it over to their dad.

From what Lisa was able to figure, since their dad had one of the copies of the mini file she had on Dawn, it was clear that it had to have been someone who managed to go into her and David's office at their place, get to the folder that held info on Dawn, and make off with the copy that had somehow found its way into the older Loud patriarch's hands. Lisa said that she believes that this could be any of the younger Loud adult women, those being Lucy, Lana, Lola or Lily, as she had all of them over, and was admittedly not being as tight on home security as she used to be; an incident this one time involving Allison Ace freaking out upon spotting a home security camera looking at her while she was using the bathroom was all the convincing that Lisa needed to cease with her rather questionable habit of putting up the cameras pretty much everywhere.

"Aye, I remember how I violently smashed that spy-thing when I visited the scientist's house a while ago," Allison remarked in a conversational tone as she and Lori talked at the Santiago residence, two days after Lynn Sr. learned the truth about Dawn's parentage. Giving her sister-in-law a wry look, the female Ace twin continued, "So, my first observation about the girl all that time ago was correct. She really _is_ a Sinborn." Arching an eyebrow in a curious manner, Allison continued, "I assume that your reason for trying to convince me that what I saw that day was wrong was a good reason?"

"I'm sorry, Allison," Lori remarked, her tone sounding apologetic, "It's just…it's just that what my sisters and I were trying to keep private from everyone else isn't exactly something that would be easy to explain, especially since there are some people who will always have an unfavorable view on people with origins similar to Dawn's, simply because of their origins.

Allison nodded once or twice in understanding. Holding up a hand in a gesture to get Lori to take pause for a moment, Allison remarked, "There is no need to apologize, Lori. Even I can understand that there are just some things that cannot be shared easily. You have no need to feel sorry for trying to deceive me upon seeing that I had managed to figure out that the girl is a Sinborn just from a simple observation." Giving her sister-in-law a knowing look, the female Ace twin asked, "So Lori, who else now knows?"

"Thankfully," Lori began, "Those who know the truth still consists only of family members. If there's one positive thing that can be said about my dad as of late, it's that he doesn't want anyone to find out the truth about Dawn, although I highly suspect that it has more to do with 'preserving his image', or whatever." The way that Lori made air quotations when she said 'preserving his image', along with the tone she had used when she spoke, made it clear that the Santiago woman had a very poor opinion of her father at the moment. It was not something that was lost on the female Ace twin.

Reaching down to the floor next to the chair she sat in, Allison opened a bag and pulled out a bottle of mead. Setting the bottle of good drink on the table, Allison said, "You said that your champion took your kids and the Sinborn out with him because you wanted some 'alone girl time' with me, right?" After a quick nod from Lori, Allison cracked a bit of a smile before she said, "In that case, now would be a good time to get your fill of good drink, wouldn't you agree?" For the first time in a good long while, Lori found herself agreeing with Allison about now being a good time to get smashed.

* * *

It had been two days since Lori and Allison downed a bottle of mead between the two of them, and Dawn's Aunt Lucy was over at the Santiago residence. Like Rita, even Lucy could not help but be a bit surprised to learn the truth about Dawn's parentage. However, again like Rita, Lucy was not going to let any of that cloud her judgment, cloud how she feels about her teenage niece; Dawn was still family, and nothing was going to change that as far as the gothic Spokes woman was concerned.

Lucy looked over at the plush leather armchair in the living room, where Dawn was sitting in as she played on some video game system. Lucy could tell that her teenage niece was still troubled by the events of the past few days. Lucy was unsure if she should try to reach out to the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl, especially considering how most of Lucy's siblings still suspected her of being the one who had turned that info on Dawn over to the older Loud patriarch.

Lucy decided to try and reach out to Dawn anyway, getting up from where she sat with some difficulty as she was in the very late stages of her pregnancy. Lucy slowly walked over, her gait something of a waddle due to her noticeable belly. "…Hey Dawn," Lucy began, speaking as loudly as she dared. After a few seconds, Dawn looked up from the video game that she was playing to regard her gothic aunt. "…You doing okay?" Lucy asked, clearly sounding rather concerned for her teenage niece.

After looking at Lucy for a few moments, Dawn put her focus right back on her video game. Lucy expected this, and didn't even blame Dawn for trying to ignore her. After all, Lucy was still under some scrutiny from Dawn's mom and the rest of her aunts. As Lucy turned around to head back to where she was previously sitting, Dawn said aloud without looking up from her game, "Sorry. I couldn't leave the game paused while I was in the middle of a boss fight against this one elder dragon that I was trying to kill."

Turning back around, Lucy saw Dawn set her video game system off to the side before looking up at her, giving the gothic woman her full attention. "…I'm going to guess that you want to apologize for how badly Grandpa Lynn has been treating me over the last few days, don't you?" the fifteen-year-old Sharp girl asked.

"There's no way I'd let him anywhere near my soon-to-be-born child if that's the way he insists on treating any of his grandchildren," Lucy said, a good hint of firm determination in her otherwise bereft of emotion tone. Shaking her head in a manner that clearly conveyed some degree of disappointment, Lucy continued, "Seriously. I don't care what reason he has, the way that your grandfather is treating you in no excuse to-"

Suddenly, Lucy stopped short, gently holding a hand over her stomach. "Ow," Lucy remarked, a hint of surprise in her tone, "I think that I just felt some sort of pop just now." To her niece, Lucy said, "Hey Dawn, I don't suppose I can ask you to get a pair of pain relievers for me, can you? That was not something that I was expecting."

Pointing to where her aunt stood on the floor, Dawn asked, "Should I also get you a towel to clean up that drink you had spilled just now?"

The gothic woman looked at her niece with a curious expression. "Drink? What drink?" Lucy replied, her tone showing that she was mildly confused, "I haven't been drinking anything while I was-" Lucy stopped midsentence again as felt another pain in her stomach area. At around that time, she understood why her niece thought that she was drinking something, because upon looking down, Lucy saw that she stood over a wet spot on the floor, not to mention she suddenly noticed the wet sensation on a certain area of her person. The gothic woman knew there and then what was going on.

"Dawn," Lucy began, a very mild hint of panic in her tone, "Call an ambulance. I think I'm going into labor!"

"Labor?!" Dawn exclaimed in something of a panic, clearly caught off guard by what her aunt had just said. Thankfully, around the time Dawn just punched in the number to call the hospital, Dawn's Aunt Lori returned home from where she was out at the time. Seeing what was going on and knowing what was happening, the Santiago woman took over, not only having seen her sisters go through this many times before, but going through it herself on one occasion.

* * *

After a quick trip to the hospital, Lucy was rushed in to care. It was clear to the doctors that the gothic woman was going into labor. After many grueling hours in the waiting room, where they were met up by Bobby, the Santiago twins and Rocky, Lori and Dawn were relieved then the doctor came out, a warm smile on his face.

"…Congatulations, Mr. Spokes," the doctor said as he turned to face Rocky, "It's a boy." Rocky let out a breath, as if relieved that things had finally settled down, at least to some degree. Nodding once in the affirmative, the doctor said, "Yeah, things went pretty smoothly if you ask me. At least as far as deliveries go. I assume that you want to head in to see your wife and newborn son now, don't you?"

"Did Aunt Lucy really have a baby just now?" Ronnie Anne asked as she looked up at her father.

The Santiago man turned to face both his young children. With a gentle, warm smile, Bobby said, "Yeah. Your Aunt Lucy really did just have a baby. However, I think that only your Uncle Rocky should go in for the time being, seeing as how he _is_ married to your Aunt Lucy." The younger Spokes man nodded in thanks to his brother-in-law before going to follow the doctor to go see how his wife and newborn son is doing.

While they were there, Ronnie Anne turned to face her brother, dad and older cousin. "Is Aunt Lucy going to be okay?" the mixed Hispanic-Caucasian girl asked.

"Young lady, you don't give your aunts enough credit," Bobby remarked, "If they're just half as tough as your mom, then any of them should be able to pull through something like your Aunt Lucy giving birth no problem."

Nodding a bit in the affirmative, Dawn said, "He's right, Ronnie. The women in our family are all tough customers. We shouldn't count any of them out."

After giving what was said a few brief moments of consideration, Ronnie Anne said, "What do you think Aunt Lucy will name her new baby?"

"Well the doctor said it's a boy," Bobby began, "And I recall that your aunt was considering the name Randy for a boy." Putting his hands on his hips, Bobby continued with a hint of knowingness in his tone, "Although knowing your Uncle Rocky's brother, he may try to make the argument for the child to be named after him."

"Mmm," Dawn remarked, "That sounds like Uncle Rusty, alright." After a while, Bobby, the twins and Dawn were retrieved by Rocky, who said that Lucy wanted them to come in and meet Randy. Upon hearing his brother-in-law confirm the baby's name, Bobby nodded to himself once in a manner that showed that he felt his suspicions were just confirmed.

* * *

The next few days were a bit of a whirlwind for the whole of the extended family; after all, a new member had just joined them, had just been born into the world. Aunts and uncles came by to wish congratulations, the grandparents came by naturally, and even some of the younger nieces and nephews got to see their newest cousin. Even Rusty, who was admittedly mildly disappointed that his nephew wasn't named after him, could not help but be ecstatic about the newly born member of the extended Loud family.

After little Randy was cleared by the hospital to be taken home, Lucy and Rocky, with a total lack of surprise on their part, received many visitors, many of whom brought baby care supplies and little toys for the new born Randy. This all was part of why Lucy had told Rocky that they didn't have to worry too much about buying baby care supplies.

One day about two weeks after Randy was brought home, Lucy and Rocky needed some help as, due to being first-time parents, they were not yet used to caring for baby Randy. Thus Aunt Lori came to the rescue. "Now remember," Lori said to her kids, "Your little cousin needs to rest as much as possible."

"Don't worry, mom," Ronnie Anne said as she looked up at Lori, "Lincoln and I got this."

"She's got a point, Lori," Rocky called out as he came out of the hallway. Seeing Rocky come out like this surprised Lori, Lucy and Rusty, the last of whom had just come by. Seeing the looks that he was getting, Rocky said, "…What?"

"Uhh, bro," Rusty began, "Why aren't you looking after your kid?"

"Oh, I needed to take a bathroom break," Rocky began to explain, "So I handed Randy off to Dawn, and by the time I got back, both of them had fallen asleep while in the rocking chair in the nursery." Looks of surprised curiosity on their faces, all of the adults got up and went over to the nursery at the Spokes residence. Looking in, they saw that Rocky was right; Dawn, sitting in the rocking chair as she was handling Randy, had fallen asleep, with little Randy himself laying against his older cousin as he himself snoozed away.

"Now that is just precious," Lori remarked as she got out her smartphone to quickly take a picture.

"Wow," Rusty remarked as he pointed into the room to the scene before everyone, "I'm beginning to feel left behind here. Randy's never snoozed against me like that before."

With a shrug, Lucy said, "What can I say?" Gesturing into the room, the gothic woman continued, "Dawn just has a way with kids."

END

Author's notes:

Well, that brings this story here to a close. Sorry if there were any elements in this story that ticked any of you off, but this story kind of had to happen this way, partly to help continue on certain plotlines from 'WSEUL', and partly to lead on into the story that will take place after this. Yes, I'm planning on doing a sequel to this story; there was no way that I was planning on ending Dawn's tale here. It just wouldn't leave a very good taste in my mouth if I left so many negative loose ends just hanging here. What, you didn't think I would seriously let things just end here, did you?

Without giving away too much, the story to follow after this one will featuring a big family reunion. There will also be a serious investigation going on. It will also feature Dawn doing something that she is unsure about if she should be okay with doing it or not, given some of her past experiences and whatnot.


End file.
